Inheritance of Flower & Seed Colour in Flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) Over Environments in North Western Himalaya

Four true breeding genetically diverse genotypes of flax with contrasting seed colour viz., Aoyagi (brown), TL-33 (yellow), Solin (yellow) and Janaki (brown) were crossed among each other as Aoyagi x TL-33 and Solin x Janaki to develop F-1, F-2 and back cross generations for studying inheritance of seed colour in two environments i.e. CSKHPKV Palampur and RWRC, Malan during 2006-07. F-1's of Aoyagi x TL-33 and Solin x Janaki had brown colour of seeds. This indicated the dominant nature of brown seed coat colour over yellow. The F-2 segregation gave a good fit to the expected ration of 3 brown: 1 yellow in both the crosses. Similarly for flower colour, four true breeding genetically diverse genotypes of flax viz., Him Alsi2 (white), Chambal (blue), Him Alsi1 (white) and Canadian line (blue) were crossed among each other as Him Alsi2 x Chambal and HimAlsi1 x Canadian line to develop F-1, F-2 and back crosses. The F-1's of cross combinations Him Alsi2 x Chambal and HimAlsi1 x Canadian line had blue flowers which indicated that blue flower colour is a dominant trait. The dominant nature of blue flower colour over white flower colour was further confirmed by back crosses and F-2's wherein two distinct classes were observed in both the environments.