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To study drought resistance in safflower, 1858 Iranian and foreign lines and varieties of safflower were utilized. They consisted of 73.u.s. lines and varieties, two Israeli varieties, 11 Iranian local varieties and types,and the rest winter-type and spring - type lines which have been collected by the Seed. and Plant Improvement Institute of the Iranian MinistzY of Agriculture. Each line or variety was sown in a 5—m long row with loo plants in each row. After every 20 rows a row of V—49/848=222 was grown as check.No irrigation was used in this experiment. The amount of rain in the course of experiment was 96mm. Traits studied were height,number of heads/ plant, number of seeds/head, yield, and oil percentage. Planting was done in April and harvesting was carried out in September 1976.The data obtained for each trait were compared to the means of the nearest two check rows on either sides of each line and transfered into the percentages of the same means. The range of variability and the mean for each trait were obtained and the 10 best lines were recorded. The results showed that:
1. Plant height varied from 23.7 to 199.7 % and the Iranian lines
were among the shortest lines
2. Variations for number of heads per plant were from 33.3 to
263.2% and the greatest amount was for Iranian lines.
3. Number of seeds per head showed a variation of 23.1 to 261.1 %, with the Iranian lines having the greatest amount.
4. The largest amount of variation belonged to seed yield, being from 2.2 to 2000%. The Iranian lines had the highest yield.
5. Oil percentage varied from 24.4 to 118.9 %(compared to the mean of the check rows), and Iranian lines had the highest oil percentage.
It was concluded that in dry conditions and with 96mm rain, some Iraian safflower lines can produce a reasonable yield