Journal of Applied and Natural Science 10 (2): 810 - 812 (2018) ISSN : 0974-9411 (Print), 2231-5209 (Online) journals.ansfoundation.org Studies of genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance in balsam (Impatiens balsamina L.) Sumit Pal* Department of Horticulture, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi-221 005 (U.P.), India Anil K. Singh Department of Horticulture, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi-221 005 (U.P.), India A. K. Pal Department of Horticulture, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi-221 005 (U.P.), India Anjana Sisodia Department of Horticulture, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi-221 005 (U.P.), India Anupam Tiwari Department of Horticulture, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi-221 005 (U.P.), India *Corresponding author. E-mail: sumitpal4725@gmail.com Abstract A field experiment was carried out with 34 genotypes of Balsam ( Impatiens balsamina L.) to assess the variability, heritability and genetic advance with an objective to identify superior genotypes for further crop improvement programme. The experiment was con- ducted during rainy season 2014 at the Horticulture Research Farm, Department of Hor- ticulture, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. These genotypes show significant variation at 5% level of significance for different characters under study. Highest range of variation was reported with the number of flowers/plant (109-221). The phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) and genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) was maximum for seed yield/plant, i.e. 29.02 and 26.34 while, minimum in case of length of leaf, i.e. 8.35 and 6.48, respectively. High heritability was observed for all the characters except plant height, width of leaves and duration of flowering. Maxi- mum heritability was recorded for duration of flowering (90.68%) and minimum was ob- served in width of leaf (30.04). High heritability (h 2 = 90.64) with high genetic advance (GA= 71.36) as percentage of mean was observed for number of flowers/plant, which indicated that additive gene effects were more important for that trait. High genetic ad- vance as per cent of mean was observed for number of flowers/plant (71.36) however, lowest for floral bud diameter (0.11) which indicates the preponderance of additive genes and selection will be effective for improvement of these traits. Keywords: Balsam, Genetic advance, Heritability, PCV and GCV Article Info DOI: 10.31018/jans.v10i2.1702 Received: March 8, 2018 Revised: May 5, 2018 Accepted: May 22, 2018 How to Cite Pal, S. et al. (2018). Studies of genetic variability, herita- bility and genetic advance in balsam (Impatiens balsami- na L.). Journal of Applied and Natural Science, 10(2): 810 - 812 INTRODUCTION Balsam (Impatiens balsamina L.) is a widely grown flowering plant and it belongs to the family Balsaminaceae and native to India. Balsam is commonly known as garden balsam, rose balsam and Gulmehdi in Hindi (Singh, 2014). It is qualita- tive short day, free flowering, semi hardy and compact plant. It can withstand heavy rains and high humidity in atmosphere than any other annu- als, balsamina is one of the popular species of north India (Lim, 2014). The flowers are used to prepare a red dye (Pal et al., 2018) and used for finger and toe nails and cosmeticsas a substitute for Henna (Lawsonia inermis). The seed oil can be used for burning lamps and in the surface- coating industry. Seeds of balsam are in great demand in India and abroad. Therefore, for ob- taining good growth and quality flowers, it is nec- essary to standardize the genotypes for producing good quality flowers. In order to make this flower popular among the growers and traders it is of utmost importance that some outstanding varieties must be available to the growers. Although sever- al works have been accomplished for realizing this goal of developing superior varieties but the actual progress needed has not been achieved till now. In order to develop a genetically superior variety through selection in available genotypes a sound This work is licensed under Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). © 2018: Author (s). Publishing rights @ ANSF.