Genetic Divergence In Half-Sib Progenies Of Pinus Wallichiana A.B. Jackson Plus Trees In The Kashmir Himalaya, India

Studies were undertaken to assess the extent of genetic divergence among the progenies of eighty-eight plus trees selected from the entire distributional range of Pinus wallichiana in Kashmir Himalaya at the age of one year to identify the promising selections for use in future improvement programmes. The study resolved the eighty eight plus tree progenies into ten clusters using Mahalanobis D super(2) statistics. Cluster IV was largest with 21 genotypes (plus tree progenies). The inter-cluster distance was highest (9.901) between cluster IX and VII. Clusters mean indicated that cluster VIII was the best in respect of seedling height (12.82 cm), collar diameter (9.62 mm), needle length (5.76 cm), needle diameter (0.38 mm) and number of needles per seedling (17.44). The superiority of cluster VIII allows use of Arthnari and Seer plus tree progenies for operational plantation purposes.