THE STUDY OF MORPHOLOGICAL AND PRODUCTION INDICATORS OF SAFFLOWER CULTIVARS (CARTHAMUS TINCTORIUS L.) IN ALBANIA

Nikollaq BARDHI, Foto KASHTA, Moltina PREBIBAJ, Alirami SALIJI, Zejnedie ADEMI

Abstract

Safflower is an annual oil plant of the Ombrelifere or Asteriaceae family. It is widespread in the wild state in some countries of the world. It is treated as a weed. For several years, it has been treated as a food coloring plant, for various textiles and as a dyestuff agent for human hair. Meanwhile, it is also used for the production of lipstick for women. Later, the values for the oil content found in its fruit were determined. Precisely for this, studies have been done on various genetic, technological, agricultural, and industrial aspects. For several years, the study of some cultivars of safflower was carried out in Albania. The study was carried out in the district of Lushnja, initially in collaboration with the University of Viterbo, Italy, and later, the work continued for several years, independently in Albania. Eleven cultivars originating from Italy, France, Spain, and the USA were included in the study. The study was carried out according to the methodology designed and approved by both Universities, making biometric measurements of morphological and productive indicators: plant height, number of branches on the plant, number of pods (captions) per plant, number of fruits (achen) per pod and plant, the weight of 1000 fruits (g), production per plant (g) and yield (kv/ha).

Pages: 152 - 159