Morphological and seeds diversity in drumstick plant (Moringa oleifera Lam.) Germplasm from Northern Nigeria

Abstract

Genetic diversity within and among accessions of Moringa oleifera in Northern Nigeria was evaluated to determine the level of variability its exploiting in breeding and genetic improvement programs of plant. Collection and characterisation of the crop germplasm from the major cultivated states in Nigeria was carried. Evaluted for morphological was done using a Randomised Complete Block Design (RCBD) with replicate three each. A total of 34 accessions were collected with high significant (P < 0.05) variability observed in seed length, days to emergence, plant height and number of branches per plant. The seed length ranged from 1.02 cm to 1.44 cm while days to emergence varied from 5.00 to 10.00 days. The highest plant height and number of branches per plant were recorded in NGR-ZFR-16 at 2 month after emergence with the value of 94.87cm and 18.00 branches per plant. These highest values recorded in the accession was maintained in subsequent months signifying the superiority of the accession. Cluster analysis grouped the accessions into three major clusters based on their morphological similarity; three major groups, with cluster I consist 55.88% of the genotypes, 38.23% in cluster II, 5.88% in cluster III. The high variability recorded in the germplasm, indicate that the accessions and traits could be explored in the crop improvement.