Clonal stability of tree dryness in Hevea brasiliensis Muell. Arg

Abstract

Clonal stability of tree dryness was evaluated in eleven clones of Hevea brasiliensis at the Rubber Research Institute of Nigeria. The experimental design was the randomized complete block with three replicates and ten trees per replicate. The clones were evaluated in three locations. Four stability parameters were applied. The stability parameters were: environmental variance, regression index, variance due to regression, and Shukla's stability variance. Clone C 202 was outstanding for clonal stability and could be useful for furthler studies and genetic improvement of tree dryness. Other four clones (C 76, C 150, C 159 and RRIM 600) were also stable. Copyright by the Brazilian Society of Genetics.