Agro-morphological characterization of flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) accessions at north-western part of Bangladesh

Flax (Linum usitatissimum L.), grown throughout the world for millennia. It is a multipurpose agricultural crop that can provide food, fuel and fibre. An agro-morphological characterization based on 13 traits of 26 flax accessions was carried out during the Rabi season 2017-2018 at the Agricultural Research Station, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Rangpur. The field experiment was laid out in a randomized completed block design having four replications. Flax seeds were sown in 3.0 m × 0.6 m plot with continuous line sowing (two lines). The seed germination (%) and vigour indices of all flax accessions varied from 44.1 – 77.7 and 44.1 – 119.4, respectively. A significant variation in all growth and yield attributing descriptors was observed except 1000-seed weight of flax. Among the accessions, BD-10708 possessed the highest seed yield (182.9 g plant–1) and yield attributing descriptors viz., number of capsules plant–1 (142) and seeds plant–1 (513) of flax. The performance of the local accesson Ulipur was observed poor compared to some of the test accessions of flax. Some of these flax accessions could be used as breeding materials in varietal developmental and improvement programmes with higher yield potentials of flax in Bangladesh.