Nineteen rubber trees (Hevea brasiliensis Muell. Arg.) considered as the best in growth and yield performance, were selected from a mature seedling population in the experimental field at the Pindorama Experiment Station of the "Instituto Agronômico de Campinas", São Paulo State, Brazil. Studies were carried out aiming to assess the annual environmental influence on genetic variation in five years of yielding. Components of variance were estimated from these analyses in an attempt to quantify genotype x environment interactions. The results of the analysis of variance within years showed significant effects for genotypes. The genotype x environment interaction effects in the pooled analyses were highly significant The broad sense heritabiiity estimates were high, ranging from 0.57 to 0.77 in the second and fifth yielding years respectively. The largest selection progress estimates were obtained in the first and fifth year of yielding with 39.03% and 27.57% respectively. Based on the results, it was concluded that the high values of heritabiiity and genetic gain for the first year of yielding would allow a faster selection progress.
Hevea brasiliensis Muell. Arg.; selection; yield; broad sense heritability; genetic correlations; phenotypic correlation; breeding