Genetic variation in agronomic traits is important for selecting maize accessions for breeding. 18 maize accessions obtained from the Maize Breeding and Genetics Laboratory, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan, were grown in a randomized complete block design with three replications during spring 2023. Ten morphological and grain traits were recorded: plant height, ear height, internode diameter, internode length, cob length, rows per cob, seeds per row, cob diameter, pith diameter, and 100-grain weight. Analysis of variance showed significant differences among accessions for all ten traits, although internode diameter was only marginally significant (P = 0.049). Broad-sense heritability was high for plant height (95%) and cob diameter (68%), moderate for most other traits (34 to 51%), and low for internode diameter (24%). Genetic advance as a percentage of the mean was highest for pith diameter (27.3%) and plant height (24.5%). Accessions 2068, 43, 314 and 113 had the heaviest grains (36.2 to 40.1 g per 100 grains), and the first three accessions 2068, 43, and 314 were also shorter than the group means (138 to 153 cm against 156 cm). Plant height was negatively correlated with 100-grain weight (r = −0.33), while seeds per row (r = 0.30) and ear height (r = 0.29) were positively correlated with it. The first four principal components of the accession mean explained 80.3% of the variation, and Ward clustering separated the accessions into four groups. The results point to accessions worth testing as parents. These results identify accessions 2068, 43, 314, and 113 as promising candidates for further breeding evaluation because of their high 100-grain weight.
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