Estimation of Genetic Variability, Heritability and Genetic Gain for Wood Density and Fibre Length in 36 Clones of White Willow (Salix AlbaL.)

Variability of wood density and fibre length was determined in 36 genotypes of Salix alba L. procured from seven different European countries namely Italy, Hungary, U.K, Netherlands, Turkey, Yugoslavia and Croatia. Genetic parameters were worked out with regards to estimate of heritability (broad sense), genetic advance, genetic gain as per cent of mean and correlation coefficient among them. Wood density was recorded in the range of 0.30–0.53 with mean value 0.40gcm−3 whereas fibre length ranged from 0.45–0.65 with mean 0.55mm. High heritability values show that the genetic control is stronger for wood density (h2=90.30) than for fibre length (h2=78.20). Both the characters were having high heritability with good genetic gain. Clone 84/22 from Turkey had given best performance in view of both the character. Further control crossing is underway to produce ideotype with regard to different end users.