Morphological study of 140 cultivars of cassava within ex-Oriental Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Abstract

This study analyzed the morphological diversity of cassava cultivars in different agroecological zones of the former Orientale Province in DR Congo on the basis of 11 descriptors. The 140 morphologically identified cassava cultivars were distributed in Tshopo (57), Bas-Uele (44), Haut-Uele (27) and Ituri (12). Descriptive analysis of qualitative characteristics revealed a phenotypic polymorphism useful for the creation of improved varieties. The different cassava cultivars varied in apical leaf colour from dark green (55/140), light green (40/140), purple (38/140) to purple green (7/140). Vein colours were green (69/140), red (17/140), purple (10/140), vpmf (35/140), Rpmf (9/140). Petiole colours varied from red, reddish green, purple to green. Cultivars with ovate lanceolate lobed leaves were predominant. The contribution of the CI and CII principal components to the total variation was 98.64%, using discriminant factor analysis (DFA) performed on the variables. Hierarchical ascending classification based on similarity coefficients was used to structure the accessions into 3 morphological diversity groups. The third group was similar to cultivars of the second group by 71% and both were similar to the first group by 36%.