Abstract:
Bambara groundnut [
Vigna subterranea
(L.) Verdc.] is an indigenous legume crop in
Africa. It has comparable value to other legumes fo
r food and nutritional security in the
continent. However, small-scale farmers continue cu
ltivating unimproved landrace
varieties over the production areas in sub-Saharan
Africa. Bambara groundnut landraces
exist as heterogeneous mixtures of seeds, which typ
ically contain a few to several seed
morpho-types that may embrace wide genetic diversit
y. In this study, the agro-
morphological variations of 213 Bambara groundnut l
andraces were evaluated to
determine the presence of within- and between-landr
aces of pod and seed morphology,
out of which only 49 were used to access their gene
tic variability using 9 agronomic traits
while 158 landraces were used to determine leaf mor
phology. Most of the landraces
displayed pointed, round and yellowish pod colour,
with grooved and oval seed shapes.
For leaf morphology, 49.4% had round leaves, while
21.5% had elliptical leaves, with
55.7% landraces being heterogeneous possessing more
than one leaf shape. Significant
differences (P< 0.05) were detected for seed traits
and leaf morphology including seed
height, canopy spread and terminal width. Leaf morp
hology could be a useful marker for
strategic breeding and genetic conservation of Bamb
ara groundnut.
Keywords:
Bambara groundnut, Genetic diversity, Landraces, L
eaf morphology, Partially
balanced design.
