Genetic variation for pod wall proportion in Lupinus albus

The proportion of pod walls is considered as a potential selection criterion for seed yield in white lupin. It has a negative and highly significant phenotypic relationship with the seed yield and the genetic correlation between both traits is negative and high. The present study over 2 years (1996 and 1998) evaluated the genetic variation of proportion of pod walls in a set of 325 spring‐sown white lupin accessions originating from 17 different countries. Wide ranges of variation for this trait and other pod components were observed. This variation has a geographical distribution. Egyptian ecotypes had the lowest proportions of pod walls while the Greek and Italian ecotypes had the highest. The between‐country range of variation for the proportion of pod walls, was lower than the within‐country range (0.25‐0.31 and 0.21‐0.36, respectively) and the within‐country variance accounted for 51% of the total genetic variation. The broad‐sense heritabilities of pod wall proportion and proportion of pod walls for one full locule were moderate (0.44 and 0.57, respectively), which indicates that the proportion of pod walls can be used in breeding.