Evaluation of phenotypic variability of seedlings obtained from open pollination of three varieties of the genus Hylotelephium

ABSTRACT This article reflects on the conventional open pollination breeding method of the genus Hylotelephium. Six-year-old seedlings were evaluated and compared with the mother plants for 3 years. A total of 1 063 seedlings were evaluated (54 in the H. ‘Red Cauli’, 90 descendants in the H. ‘Xenox’, 919 descendants in the H. ‘Purple Emperor’). This study deals with six evaluated characters of vegetative parts of plants (habit, height and width of plants, length and width of leaves and the colour of the upper side of the leaves). The most significant phenotypic variability was confirmed for habit, plant height, leaf colour in summer and leaf length in population H. ‘Xenox’ and for spring colouration of lower leaves in population H. ‘Red Cauli’. The highest degree of variability was found for plant height, where the monitored populations split into a total of seven different sizes. On the contrary, the lowest degree of variability was demonstrated for the length and width of leaves, where all populations showed shorter and narrower leaves compared to the mother plants, with minimal differences.