DETERMINATION OF SOME YIELD AND QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS AMONG INDIVIDUAL PLANTS OF LAVENDER (LAVANDULA ANGUSTIFOLIA MILL.) POPULATIONS GROWN UNDER MEDITERRANEAN CONDITIONS IN TURKEY

This research was carried out on the individual plants of lavender (Lavandula angustifolia Mill.). In this research, the main aim was to find out the characteristics of the individual plants; to determine the existence of promismg plants to continue the study under Mediterranean condition, and lastly to determine the genotypes which are able to supply the highest yield with better quality. In the study, the characteristics such as the plant height (cm), the flower height (cm), fresh plant yield (g/plant) and the essential oil rate (%) of 260 plants in the first year and 256 plants m the second year were measured. In the individual plants, the highest drug flower yields were 84.70 and 113.30 g/plant in first and second years of study respectively. The essential oil content varied between 0.07% and 4.58% in 2015, 0.05% and 3.55% in 2016 respectively. The results indicated that there was great variation among the individual plants in intrapopulation of Lavandula angustifolia Mill. The seeds of population as paint material obtained from Pharmasaat GmbH (Germany). Thus the supenor genotypes in terms of drug flower yield and essential oil contents can be used in plant breeding programs to develop useful variations for enhancing the oil yield.