Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2020) 9(8): 2944-2950 2944 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2020.908.330 Character Association and Path Co-efficient Analysis for Yield Attributing Traits in Dahlia (Dahlia variabilis L.) Maguluri Sree Devi * , G. K. Seetharamu, B. C. Patil, C. N. Hanchinamani, Laxman Kukanoor, D. Satish and Sandhyarani Nishani Kittur Rani Channamma College of Horticulture, Arabhavi, University of Horticultural Sciences, Bagalkot, Karnataka, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Dahlia (Dahlia variabilis L.) is a tuberous rooted herbaceous perennial belonging to the family Asteraceae having its origin in Mexico. It is popular plant for landscaping, cut flower and loose flower purposes (Smith, 1971).Knowledge on inter-relationship of characteristics of crop is of paramount importance as it helps in selecting appropriate components, which would result with improvement of complex characteristics that are correlated with each other (Al-Jibourie et al., 1958). However, ccorrelation coefficient alone cannot provide a complete representation of the causal basis of relationship and path coefficient analysis is relied upon to do so (Islam and Khan, 1991 and McGiffen et al., 1994). Therefore, the present investigation was undertaken to estimate associations among desired traits and their direct and indirect contributions toward yield in thirty two cultivars of dahlia. Materials and Methods The experiment was carried out at department of Floriculture and Landscape Architecture, Kittur Rani Channamma College of Horticulture, Arabhavi which is situated in the International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 9 Number 8 (2020) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com An experiment was conducted with 32 cultivars of dahlia (Dahlia variabilis L.) to study correlation and path analysis among the yield attributing traits and their effect. Correlation among component characters showed that flower yield per plant had a highly significant positive genotypic correlation with leaf area index (0.617), crop duration (0.771), flowering duration (0.800), tuber weight (0.668) and change in fresh weight at day 3. Path- coefficient analysis revealed a positive direct effect of duration of crop, duration of flowering, flower diameter, vase life, total chlorophyll content and change in fresh weight at day 3 on flower yield per plant proving that direct selection of these traits can be implemented for yield improvement. Hence the parameters selected in the study are sufficient for direct selection of cultivars for cut flower attributing traits in dahlia. Keywords Dahlia, Correlation, Path analysis, Selection Accepted: 24 July 2020 Available Online: 10 August 2020 Article Info