Abstract
Twenty four genotypes of Terminalia arjuna and T. tomentosa were studied from Chhattisgarh (erstwhile Madhya Pradesh), Orissa and Jharkhand (erstwhile Bihar) for fruit characters. Fruit weight and breadth of wings in fruits exhibited high G.C.V. which suggests high genetic variability of these characters. High heritability value for fruit weight, breadth of wings and germination % were associated with high genetic advance indicating additive gene effects for these characters, whereas low/moderate genetic advance against high heritability for length of fruits indicated intra- or inter-allelic interactions for this character. The coheritability of all the fruit characters with germination % were lower than the heritability of germination % alone. The coheritability of fruit weight with length of fruits and breadth of wings was also higher than the heritability of fruit weight alone which indicates pleiotropism or linkage between these characters. The co-genetic advance was also observed between the pair of these three characters. The length of fruits was significantly and positively correlated with fruit weight and breadth of wings as compared to non-significant positive correlation between weight and breadth of wings, and negative correlation of germination % with other fruit characters. Hence, for rapid afforestation programmes, fruit (seeds) should be collected from trees producing smaller seeds rather than larger seeds in these taxa.
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