Morphological variation in maize inbred lines

In order to identify morphological variation in maize inbred lines, one hundred five inbred lines were planted under randomized complete block design with two replications at research field of National Maize Research Program, Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal during summer season (March to June), 2010. Descriptive statistics and cluster analysis were done. The results revealed a wide range of morphological variation among the tested inbred lines. The inbred lines grouped in cluster 4 namely PUTU-13, L-9, RL-105, RL-197, RL-103, RML-9, RML-41, RL-165, RL-36, RL-76, RL-125, RL-30-3, L-6, RL-107, RL-174, RL-41, L-13, RML-76 and L-5 had 0.833 days anthesis-silking interval and earlier in flowering (tasseling in 54.50 days and silking in 55.33 days). Moreover they consisted of 1.16 plant aspect, 1.25 ear aspect, 33.08 cm tassel length and 13.5 tassel branch number. Among tested lines, the above inbred lines had better morphological traits, so it was concluded that they were good candidates for development of hybrids and synthetic varieties. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ije.v3i2.10521 International Journal of the Environment Vol.3(2) 2014: 98-107