Vol. 12, Issue 5 (2023)

Author(s):
C Rajamanickam, A Baskaran, C Ravindran, K Sundaraiya and V Vani

Abstract:
An experiment on genetic diversity in tamarind (Tamarindus indica L.) was conducted at Horticultural College and Research Institute, Periyakulam, Tamil Nadu. The objective was to examine the genetic relatedness and genetic diversity among 31 tamarind genotypes. Significant differences were recorded among the 31 tamarind genotypes with regard to different morphological characters. Thirty one genotypes of tamarind were grouped into eight clusters by following the Tocher’s method of clustering analysis utilizing data on a set of eleven traits related to yield, vegetative characters and quality characters. TI-23 (cluster VIII) and TI-12 (VII) formed individual clusters and had the maximum genetic divergence. Whereas Cluster II had the maximum of nine genotypes grouped together while cluster I had the seven genotypes and cluster IV had five genotypes. The intra and inter cluster genetic distance values ranged from 9.205 (cluster V) to 16.039 (cluster I). The maximum inter cluster distance was observed between cluster III (9.770) and cluster VIII (32.285). Cluster VII (550.33) showed the highest mean performance among 31 tamarind genotypes in five out of seven traits followed by cluster V and cluster II. Contribution of individual characters towards divergence recorded that maximum contribution to total divergence was recorded in acidity and number of fruits per tree; whereas the lowest contribution noticed in the traits such as tree circumference, fibre weight, pulp weight, pod width, pod length and tree height. The highest frequency was recorded on acidity, number of fruits per tree, fruit weight and shell weight. The lowest frequency exhibited in tree height, pod length, pod width, tree circumference, number of seeds per pod and fibre weight.