Abstract: Objective The purpose of this paper is to provide academic evidence for germplasm evaluation and innovation of safflower and identify the primary factors of yield by investigating the variation of agronomic traits of safflower.MethodThe correlation analysis,path analysis,principal components analysis and multiple liner regression analysis were conducted,whilst according to the characteristics of safflower growth and development,the main determinant factors of safflower yield formation were analyzed with the method of critical-path analysis.Result The results showed that the variation coefficient of agronomic traits of safflower reached from 5.09; to 55.84;,and the yield had an extremely significant correlation (0.722,1) and significant correlation (0.342,9) with bulb number per plant and bulb diameter.The top absolute value of direct path coefficient of safflower agronomic traits to yield was bulb number per plant (0.713,7),which directly affected the yield formation.The determination coefficient of four factors selected by multiple liner regression analysis to safflower yield model was 0.766,8.Conclusion To sum up,the safflower varieties with high plant,longer growth period,more fruit ball number and larger diameter head have high yield advantage.