Relationship between seed yield and its component characters in Cenchrus spp.

Cenchrus setigerus, C. sp., eleven obligate apomictic cultivars and a sexual line of Cenchrus ciliaris L. were studied to determinethe relationship between seed production and its component characters, through principal component analysis, path correlationanalysis and analysis of variance. A completely randomized field design was used. Ten vegetative and reproductivemorphological characters were measured. Seed production was influenced directly by panicle weight and indirectly by paniclelength, 1000 seed weight, length and width of flag leaf lamina and length of flag leaf sheath. Panicle weight showed highheritability and variability among genotypes. Hence, panicle weight can be considered a selection criterion to obtain increasedseed production in Cenchrus. The cultivar Lucero INTA PEMAN exhibited the highest panicle weight and, therefore, greatestseed production, which makes it suitable for selection as parental cultivar to obtain new germplasm in Cenchrus with high seedyield.