Morphological variation and flower yield of different populations of Rosa damascena Mill. In kashan

چکیده مقاله

Rosa damascena Mill., an important species as a source of rose oil and rose water, is one of the oldest rose species grown in Iran. Genetic improvement of this species has been greatly limited by the sparse information on its genetic background. Thirteen populations from the most important rose oil production regions of Kashan were used to evaluate their phenotypic variation by using 71 morphological parameters. Cluster analysis revealed that Kamoo and Josheghan populations were the most related ones, while the most independent ones was the Qamsar genotypes. The essential oil distillation method was performed by Clevenger apparatus. Rosa damascena landrace from Azaran (valleg) produced the highest oil content of absolute oil (%0.019 W/W) on petal basis. Therefore, this research suggest the Azaran flower for oil contents can be good selection criteria for improving flower yield per plant and the selection of the landraces for the future breeding program in Rosa damascena. Keywords: essential oil, Kashan, morphological parameters, Rosa damascena.