Genetic variability and character correlation in cultivars and hybrids of <i>Heliconia psittacorum</i>

Abstract

The objective of this work was to study the genetic variability, the herdability and the correlations between floral stems characters important for the genetic improvement of cultivars and hybrids of H. psittacorum. After evaluation of seven H. psittacorum genotypes and hybrids it was observed variability from the traits: number of days for the inflorescence emission, after shoot formation (NDEI); number of days before harvesting the inflorescence, after inflorescence emission (NDCI); flower mass stem (MH); number of leaves in the stem at the moment of inflorescence emission (NFH); stem length (CH); and inflorescence length (CI). The higher herdability and genetic coefficients values were 97.33, 85.05, 84.98, 84.48 e 82.25%, for NDEI, CH, CI, NFH e MH, and 27.96, 23.02 and 16.89%, for NDEI, MH e CI, respectively. These results indicate a higher possibility of success to achieve better quality of flower stems by the selection of  these traits by the genetic breeding. The genetic correlation of NDEI with NFH was of 0.52, which may indicate the NFH as a marker for flowering. The trait CH demonstrated negative genetic correlation with NDEI and DCI (-0.72 and -0.81, respectively), which indicate that higher length of the stem was observed in genotypes with less days from harvest.