This work aimed to evaluate the performance of six genotypes of sunflower under two spatial distributions between plant rows, and verify the cause effect relation between growth features. The experiment was carried at experimental area of Federal Technological University of Paraná (Campus Dois Vizinhos), evaluating six sunflower cultivars and two spatial distributions (40 and 80 cm between rows), remaining the total plant population similar, 55.000 plants by hectare. It was performed a path analysis, identifying the features that have most influence on sunflower grain yield and one hundred grain weight, also multiple regression analysis was used to estimate the equation for grain yield and one hundred grain weight. It was verified that sunflower genotypes do not present different performances under the evaluated spatial distributions, however, the genotypes showed to be significantly different for most of the features evaluated. Direct effect under grain yield was observed for the features number of plants and stem diameter at 15 days, while the indirect effects were observed for plant stature via stem diameter, both at 15 days. For the feature one hundred grain weight it was verified that only plant stature at 90 days promoted a direct effect, but negative.
