The species Lippia alba, belonging to the Verbenaceae family, is a vigorous wild bush with aromatic and medicinal properties. Due to the presence of several essential oils, it is used among others, mostly in drugs and cosmetics, perfumes. The species is poorly studied and no genetic parameter is known to help breeding programs. The main purpose of this research was to evaluate survival (S%), branches length (BL) and fresh weight (FW), in three progenies. High heritabilities, (FM 90.2% - 94.5%; BL 95.2% - 97.1%), in the narrow sense, were observed in all progeny groups, except for S% (50.0% - 56.0%). Genetic gains were similar for all three traits, strongly suggesting the presence of large genetic variability. Additive genetic correlations were high (87.9% - 98.8%) and predominate in the phenotypic correlations (G% - 94.1% - 98.8%). Despite the high environmental correlations, their effects on the phenotypic correlations were quite small (E% 1.2 % - 5.9%).
plant breeding; genetic gain; correlations
