an investigation on genetic diversity of 608 persian walnut accessions for screening of some genotypes of superior traits

to investigate the genetic diversity of persian walnut (juglans regia), 608 different walnut genotypes of neyriz region were evaluated for 30 morphological characteristics including kernel color, fruit shape, shell seal, shell texture and kernel plumpness, kernel weight, percentage of kernel as well as thickness of shell. the correlation between was traits in most cases significant at either 1 or 5% level. there was also positive correlation observed between seed weight with kernel weight. furthermore, correlation between leaf bearing time and harvest was also significant. finally the superior genotypes were analyzed with ten characterstics taken into account. the cluster analysis, according to ward method and euclidian distance, classified 44 genotypes in four groups. the highest distance was observed between the two genotypes 564 and 536, and the three ones namely: 483, 572 and 581. forty four genotypes were selected among which 7 genotypes possessed an 85% of the requirements needed for a promising genotype .