April, 2016 Research in Environment and Life Sciences 458  2016 RELS ISSN: 0974-4908 http://rels.comxa.com Res. Environ. Life Sci. rel_sci@yahoo.com 9(4) 458-460 (2016) Correlation studies in gaillardia (Gaillardia pulchella Foug.) genotypes Arulmani N. *1 , Chandrashekar S.Y. 1 , Ramesha Y. S. 2 and Rashmi R. 1 1 Department of FLA, 2 Department of Economics, College of Horticulture, Mudigere- 577 132, India *e-mail: arulmani.hort@gmail.com (Received: August 14, 2015; Revised received: February 12, 2016; Accepted: February 16, 2016) Abstract: The association between fifteen different growth and floral characters towards flower yield per plant were studied in eight Gaillardia pulchella Foug. genotypes under hill zone of Karnataka. The correlation studies revealed that highly significant and positive association of flower yield per plant was recorded with days taken for first flowering, duration of flowering, flower diameter, number of florets per plant, number of whorls of petals per flower and single flower weight. Also plant height, plant spread, number of branches, number of leaves and leaf area also showed significant and positive correlation with flower yield, indicating the possibility of simultaneous selection for these traits to improvement of yield and its attributing parameters in the Gaillardia. Keywords: Gaillardia pulchella, Genotypes, Correlation, Growth and Floral characters, blanket flower Introduction Gaillardia (Gaillardia pulchella Foug.), commonly known as Blanket Flower because of its wide array of color and patterns including Mexican blankets, gold-tipped with russet-red centers but recent introductions have expanded the color range further. Sometimes gaillardia is referred to as fire wheel or Indian blanket or brown-eyed susan in European countries (Helen et al., 2007). Its belongs to the family of Asteraceae with basic chromosomes number of X=18 and 2n=36 (Srivastava and Kandpal, 2006) and native to Florida and western United States (Anon, 2007). The generic name of gaillardia was proposed in honour of Gaillard de Marentonneauin 18 th century, a French supporter of botany (Bailey, 1929). The genus Gaillardia are gaining importance due to their wide range of flower form and color and is a potential crop for loose flower in both dry land, hilly region and for landscaping (Johnkilmer, 1989). Genotype correlation provides a reliable measure of genetic association between the characters (Al-Jibourie et al., 1958). However, correlation studies regarding their quality traits are negligible. So, in the present investigation an attempt was made to study the association between quality parameters in gaillardia. Materials and Methods The present experiment was carried out at experimental block of Department of Floriculture and Landscape Architecture, College of Horticulture, Mudigere, (University of Agriculture and Horticultural Sciences, Shivamogga) during the period from October 2014 to April 2015 to study the association between various characters towards the flower yield of eight gaillardia genotypes (table-1). The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications . Forty five old seedlings were transplanted in ridges and furrow after irrigation and other cultural practices are followed as per standard recommendations (Anon., 2008). The observations were recorded on five randomly tagged plants from each genotypes of each replication avoiding border plants. Observations were recorded on various parameters and statiscally analyzed according to Al-Jibourie et al., (1958). Results and Discussion Estimates of coefficients of correlation worked out at genotypic and phenotypic level for growth and flowering traits are presented in table 2 and 3. Character association on correlation is a measure of the degree of association between two characters. The genotypic correlation provides an estimate of inherent association between genes controlling any two characters. In the present study, it was observed that the genotypic correlation was more than the phenotypic correlation, indicating the presence of inherent association between various characters. Similar trend has been observed by Magar et al . (2010) in gerbera. The plant height produced at 90 DAT significantly correlated in positive direction with plant spread (E-W) at 90 DAT, plant spread (N-S) at 90 DAT, number of leaves at 90 days after transplanting, stem girth at 90 DAT, leaf area, diameter of flower, duration of flowering and flower yield per hectare both at genotypic and phenotypic level. Similar results were observed by Kumar (2011) in marigold and Vikas et al. (2011) in dahlia. However it showed non-significant correlation with other characters. The plant spread (E-W) at 90 DAT had significant positive correlation with plant spread, number of branches per plant, number of leaves, stem girth, leaf area and flower yield per hectare, while it was positive and non significant for dry weight at 90 DAT. The number of branches produced per plant exhibited significant and positive association with number of leaves per plant, stem girth, leaf area, number flowers per plant, number of flowers per plot, flower