The wild relatives of crop species have a wide adaptation to different climate conditions and carrying the desirable genes. These plants are considered as a potential gene pool for yield, quality traits and tolerance to salinity, chilling and drought.. Interspecific hybridization could be used to increase genetic variation, to transfer evolutionary adaptation, and to produce novel plant species. In the current study, cold tolerance of different recombinant lines resulting from interspecific cross was evaluated in overwintering conditions. Genetic material included 159 families of F7 derived from crossing between three domestic and wild species of safflower including C. tinctorius , C. oxyacanthus , and C. palaestinus , along with their parents, and 28 control genotypes (included internal and external genotypes). The experiment was conducted in autumn 2018 at the research farm of Isfahan University of Technology, located in Lavark, Najaf Abad. The results showed that the TP population derived from C. tinctorius × C. palaestinus , PO population from C. palaestinus × C. oxyacanthus , and TO population from C. tinctorius × C. oxyacanthus had mean seed yield per plant of 15.56 14.98 and 12.5 g/plant, respectively. Also, mean of oil yield for populations TP, PO and TO was 4.37 3.51 and 3.34 g/plant, respectively. For overwintering, the opulations of TP, PO, and TO showed 76.67, 72.21, and 74.64 % survival, correspondingly. Therefore, it was concluded that in average, the recombinant lines of TP and TO populations respectively showed the most and least prefernace and performance in terms of seed yield and its component, oil yield, seed oil content and, cold tolerance for overwintering.Correlation cofficents showed that an all populations of TP, PO, and TO, there was a positive and significant correlation between oil yield with each of seed oil content, and seed yield. Also, a positive and significant correlation was observed between seed yield and yield component of capitula per plant and seeds per capitula. Results of the main component analysis showed that in TP population, 49, 62, and 37 genotypes, and in PO population, genotype 214 had the highest mean of survival in winter, and in TO population, the genotypes of 143 and sv58 showed the highest seed yield per plant. In conclusion, the results showed that populations derived from interspecific crosses have a good potential of genetic improvement for seed yield and quality, and also foradaptation and overwintering in autumn planting Keywords : Interspecific crosses, Safflower, Autumn planting, Overwintering tolerance
