| Abstrakt: |
Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), one of the most productive and nutritious forage crops, is grown worldwide for hay, silage and pasture. In order to study the phenotypic variation, an experiment was conducted on 40 alfalfa population in a randomized complete block design with three replications during 2018 in a research farm of Urmia University. Traits including plant height, re-growth rate, No. of node, node length, No. of stem, No. of floret per racemes, racemes length, No. of pod per racemes, leaf fresh weight, leaf dry weight, stem fresh weight, stem dry weight, total fresh weight, total dry weight, leaf dry weight/stem dry weight, and total dry weight/total fresh weight were measured. The results showed a significant variation in alfalfa populations, so that for most of the traits, significant difference was observed. The results showed that graphical analysis of the genotype × trait biplot, explaining 53.43% of the total standardized data variation, could greatly facilitate the study of genetic variation and relationships between traits. The positive correlation between two important traits of total dry weight and leaf to stem ratio led to a nearly identical ranking of the populations based on these traits, which is important for simultaneous breeding of these two traits. Further, the studied populations were clustered in two main groups, each of them in two subgroups based on cluster analysis, the first subgroup containing foreign and Ghareh-Yonjeh populations, and in terms of forage yield and leaf to stem ratio The situation was favorable. Therefore, the populations in the first cluster can be used in alfalfa cultivation development programs and the future breeding program of this plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
