Relationships between grain yield and morphological characters in the winter wheat genotypes of the Belgian national list

Yield per shoot and to a much lesser extend yield per unit area were related to morphological characters. The flag sheath was better related to shoot yield than were any of the three uppermost leaf laminae. Among these the areas of the two lower leaves showed a better relationship to the yield than did the flag leaf lamina. Variation in main shoot yield was associated mainly with variation in grain number. More attention should be given to morphological character related to spike development before anthesis.