EVALUATION OF GENETIC DIVERSITY AMONG DATE PALM VARIETIES UNDER SOUTHERN PUNJAB CLIMATE.

Experiment was conducted to assess genetic diversity among different date palm varieties grown under climatic condition of southern Punjab during 2016-2019. Nine varieties of date palm were analyzed for their morphological and physiochemical characteristics under arid to semi-arid conditions of southern Punjab. To analyze data, principal components analysis and un-weighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) cluster analysis were used. Results exhibited high variability among all studied varieties of date palm. PCA placed all forty seven qualitative traits into six components which contributed almost 87.54% of the total variability. While twenty six quantitative traits were also placed into six components, which contributed almost 92.53% of the total variability. Correlation analysis of quantitative characters showed that spathe length without sheet and spathe width possess strongest positive correlation (0.995). While strong negative correlation was detected between number of inflorescence per frond and stone volume percentage of fruit volume (-0.805). Then cluster analysis was applied to these nine date palm varieties, which divided these varieties into 4 clusters i.e. Khurma in clusters 1, Shakri, Shamran, Kupra and Haleeni in clusters 2, Zahidi, Aseel and Hilawi in clusters 3 and Khadrawi in clusters 4. This classification was based on quantitative as well as qualitative traits, which also provides base line for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]