Abstract: The genetic diversity in forty flower lotus germplasms of Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn. ssp. nucifera from Chinese National Garden of Aquatic Vegetable was evaluated using nineteen morphological characters. Among all characters, flower type (FT), number of petals (NP), pistil character, pistil function and rhizome color (RC) exhibited significant positive correlation with figure of floral bud (FB). The correlations of FB with FT, NP and RC were positive and highly significant. The path analysis revealed that days of emerging flower bud (DB) had the highest positive direct effect on FB (0.552), followed by NP (0.516) and RC (0.368). Characters showing highly negative direct effect on FB were petal length (PL) (-0.801), days of emerging first flower (DF) (-0.558) and leaf width (-0.451). Four principal components accounted for 65.68% of the total variability. A cluster analysis based on the morphological characters revealed four continuous groups according to the evolutionary direction.

Key words: Cluster analysis, Correlation coefficient, Morphological characters, Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn. ssp. nucifera, Path analysis, Flower lotus