Abstract

This research was conducted to determine yield and yield components of 26 safflower cultivars, lines and populations in semi-arid conditions during the 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 growing seasons. The experimental plots were arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replications. In this study, seed yield (kg ha^-1), plant height (cm), number of branch per plant, number of head per plant, 1000 seed weight (g), oil content (%) and oil yield (kg ha^-1) properties were investigated. According to the average of two years study, the highest seed yields were obtained from cultivars Syria Hama (1585 kg ha^-1), Hartinan (1543 kg ha^-1) and S-541-2 (1582 kg ha^-1) lines, while the lines 250540 (34.8%) and S-541-2 (34.2%) had the highest oil contents. The highest oil yields were obtained from Syria Hama (530 kg ha^-1) cultivar and S-541-2 (541 kg ha^-1) line.

Key words: Safflower, cultivar, seed yield, oil content.