Similarity Patterns and Stability of Environmental Response in Sunflower Hybrids

Table 5

Principal component analysis of traits associated with eleven sunflower hybrids showing eigenvalues and proportion of variation relating to the first three principal component axes and eigenvectors of traits in three sowing dates and over three location-year combinations.

Trait	Sowing date
	S1			S2			S3
	PC 1	PC 2	PC 3	PC 1	PC 2	PC 3	PC 1	PC 2	PC 3
				Eigenvectors
Germination	−.24	0.45	0.24	−.35	−.11	0.60	−.38	−.16	0.51
Days to flowering	0.11	0.57	−.16	−.45	0.33	0.15	−.43	0.22	−.19
Plant height	0.34	−.27	0.49	0.28	0.43	−.23	0.13	0.60	−.45
Branching	0.30	−.14	−.63	0.49	0.03	−.08	0.42	−.14	−.05
Head diameter	0.44	−.24	−.17	0.36	0.40	0.26	0.38	0.39	0.13
1000 seed weight	−.31	−.49	−.08	0.31	−.35	0.28	0.38	−.27	−.00
Seed yield	0.44	−.02	0.47	0.22	0.38	0.60	0.28	0.41	0.68
Oil content	0.49	0.29	−.14	−.29	0.51	−.24	−.34	0.40	0.14
Eigenvalues	2.77	2.13	1.03	3.36	2.09	1.12	4.41	1.89	0.68
Variance (%)	35	27	13	42	26	14	55	24	9
Cum. Var. (%)		61	74		68	82		79	87