Genetic variability in African marigold (Tagetes erecta L.)

African Marigold (Tagetes erecta L)is an important commercial flower of India, belonging to family Asteraceae. It is also known as friendship flower in the United States and represents vulgar minds. Easy cultivation and wider adaptability of the crop has increased its popularity . Flowers are sold in the market as loose flower or for making garlands, offering in temples, churches, festivals, beautification and landscape. Although marigold is a very important flower, yet very little research work had been done towards the crop improvement. It has a lot of variation with respect to growth and flower characters, which varies with germplasm. Germplasm serves as valuable natural reservoir in providing needed attributes for developing successful varieties. However, the extent of improvement depends upon the amount of variability in different characters present in the crops, which is an indispensable prerequisite for successful breeding programmes. Therefore, selection accordance to high GCV and PCV is more effective for a particular traits. High heritability alongwith high genetic advance in per cent of mean provides a best guiding to formulate effective selection programme.