The objectives of this paper were to estimate genetic and phenotypic parameters and to predict breeding values for parents and provenances of Ilex paraguariensis. Eight provenances with 164 progenies were evaluated on three sites (Ivaí, PR, Guarapuava, PR and Rio Azul, PR) for the trait leaf weight (LW). All the variance components, parameters and breeding values were obtained by REML/BLUP (restricted maximum likelihood/best linear unbiased prediction) procedure at the individual level, through multivariate analysis involving the three sites. The individual strict sense heritabilities for the trait LW were 0.15 in Ivaí, 0.62 in Guarapuava and 0.23 in Rio Azul, demanding more sophisticated selection methods in Ivaí and Rio Azul. The provenance effect was significant in Ivaí and Rio Azul, with intraclass phenotypic correlation of 0.13 in Ivaí and 0.09 in Rio Azul. The provenances were more stable across sites than progenies with genetic correlation of 0.95 between the sites Ivaí and Rio Azul. Genetic values for all provenances and parents in all sites were predicted for the trait LW. The best provenances are Barão de Cotegipe, Quedas do Iguaçu, Cascavel and Ivaí.
Ilex paraguariensis; genetic variation; genetic value; heritability; plant improvement
