QUANTITATIVE-ANALYSIS OF CORRELATIONS AMONG FLOWER TRAITS IN GERBERA-HYBRIDA, COMPOSITAE - III - GENETIC-VARIABILITY AND STRUCTURE OF PRINCIPAL COMPONENT TRAITS

A sample of 36 flower traits consisting of six morphological categorie s in the Davis population of gerbera was restructured into phenotypic and genetic principal component traits. The first 5 phenotypic princip al component traits accounted for 62% of the total phenotypic variance of the 36 traits and have moderate to high heritablities. The first 5 genetic principal component traits account for 97% of total genetic v ariance and all have high heritability. Morphological structure of the se component traits suggest an underlying process identified by the fi rst genetic principal component involving largely trans and disk flore t traits. The results of this study indicate that the quantitative gen etic structure of the gerbera flower is controlled by a few independen t components and that principal component analysis is a useful tool to reveal variation in this structure. These composite traits are herita ble and are expected to respond to selection.