PHENOTYPIC VARIABILITY IN GRASS PEA (LATHYRUS SATIVUS L.) GERMPLASM OF VIDARBHA REGION OF MAHARASHTRA, INDIA

Sixty five accessions of grass pea germplasm of eastern Vidarbha region of Maharashtra revealed wide variability in morphological characteristics. Shannon diversity index varied from 0.2711 to 1.1433 among the accessions. Moderate CV was observed for plant height (19.58%), 100 seed weight (14.82%), number of primary branches (14.07 %) and number of seeds per pod (13.94 %). Pearson correlation coefficient indicated that the pod length demonstrated positive and significant correlation with seeds per pod and days to maturity was highly and significantly correlated with test seed weight (P <0.0001). Cluster analysis indicated two major clusters. Promising Lathyrus genotypes were identified for test weight (IC-345448) and number of primary branches per plant (IC 120463).