Inheritance Pattern of Important Qualitative Traits in Safflower (Carthamus tinctorious L.)

Safflower is an important oilseed crop with poorly studied genetic inheritance of the characters. In this study genetically diverse parents were selected which had many contrasting qualitative traits. The parents used in the study were GMU-1217, GMU- 6854, GMU-6891, GMU-2830, EC 755673 and EC755664. Crosses were made between the parents. Observations of parental traits, traits appearing in F1 and F2 were studied and the data were analysed for goodness of fit by χ2 test for appropriate ratio. A total of seven qualitative characters were studied, they were, branching type, mode of branching, mode of spininess, length of bract, leaf dentation, form of leaf shape, flower colour change at maturity, segregation in F2 generation for different traits showed the presence of either complementary or inhibitory gene action for all the characters studied while other crosses were found to have a combination of both monogenic and digenic gene action.A proper knowledge of inheritance of Agronomic traits helps in planning of efficient strategy for further crop improvement.