Morphological study of cultivated cowpea Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp. Importance of ovule number and definition of cv gr Melanophthalmus

Abstract

More than 400 cultivated cowpea accessions were studied using 29 morphophysiological characters. The analysis of data contrasts evolved cultivars and more primitive cultivars (and wild forms) according to seed size on the one hand and early and late flowering (under inductive conditions) on the other hand. The latter character is markedly correlated with ovule number. Photosensitive and early-flowering photoindependent cultivars have 11-17 ovules per pod and late flowering photoindependent cultivars have 16-25 ovules per pod. The analysis leads to assigning the accessions studied to the following different cultigroups: cv gr Unguiculata, cv gr Sesquipedalis, cv gr Biflora and cv gr Melanophthalmus, the latter newly separated from cv gr Unguiculata.