Evaluation of the Growth Dynamics and Morphological Characteristics of Genetic Sources of Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn

Abstract

The aim of this work was to evaluate the growth dynamics and selected morphological characteristics of genetic sources of milk thistle (Silybum marianum L. Gaertn.) for the further development of the minimal set of descriptors. Milk thistle is grown in the Czech Republic for its achenes; however, the quality of achenes can be reduced by many factors, by the occurrence of fungal pathogens mainly. The growth dynamics and morphological characteristics of milk thistle during the vegetation period in the years 2010–2013 at two localities were evaluated. The cluster analysis of the data showed the similarity for some of the accessions and confirmed the dependence of the data value to the climatic conditions. Source from Serbia, Slovakia, Romanian variety ’De Prahova’, German accessions SIL 2 and SIL 8, Hungarian accesion RCAT 040360 DDR and Czech variety ’Silyb’ seem to be promising genetic sources from the viewpoint of growth and development in the Czech Republic.

Keywords

• genetic source
• <i>Silybum marianum</i>
• growth dynamics
• morphological characteristics