Tarbiat Modares University Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology 1680-7073 26 1 2024 01 01 Morphological Variability and Yield Traits in Softneck Garlics 127 138 16909 10.22034/JAST.26.1.127 EN G. Beşirli Department of Agronomy and Vegetable Breeding, Atatürk Horticultural Central Research Institute, Yalova, Turkiye. Journal Article <span>To improve garlic breeding, it is important to determine the morphological differences between garlic genotypes of local origin. This study was conducted to determine the phenotypic diversity of Turkish softneck garlic (Allium sativum L. sub. var. sativum) genotypes using morphological traits determined based on International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) descriptors. Twenty-six garlic genotypes were characterized using 15 quantitative morphological characteristics. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) revealed that the first four principal components explained 84.58% of the total variation among the 26 garlic genotypes. The characters with the greatest contribution to variability were identified as Plant Height (PH), Pseudostem Diameter (PSD), Leaf Length (LL), Leaf Width (LW), Bulb Weight (BW), Yield (Y), Bulb Height (BH), Bulb Diameter (BD), Clove Height (CH), Bulb Height/Bulb Diameter ratio (BH/BD), Vumber of Cloves (NC), Clove Weight (CW), Clove Width (CWi), and Clove Thickness (CT). Significant differences were observed in the quantitative traits of garlic genotypes. As a result of the study, AS14 stood out for its clove weight, length, width, and thickness, while AS13 had the highest bulb weight and yield. The present findings could be reliably used in the development of new garlic varieties.</span> https://jast.modares.ac.ir/article_16909_bad815642779b6e483ae2e3ace29e419.pdf