Abstract:
The species of Dioscorea (yam) are regarded as a staple food crop for millions of people
in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. It is regarded as an important food
crop next to cereals and grains due to high yield storage of carbohydrates. Economically,
only few species are recognized for cultivation from agricultural point of view, in spite of
its large species diversity. The species of Dioscorea also represents great morphological
variability in nature. However, very little research has been done on it. Hence, in the
present study, an attempt was made to establish genetic variability and relationships
among 50 accessions of Dioscorea spp. growing naturally in Meghalaya. Principal
Component Analysis (PCA) for the first nine components indicates 91.5% observed
variability. Morphological characters or traits with discriminating values were stem
color, leaf type, number of leaflet in compound leaf, leaf color, leaf shape, inner petal
shape, staminode absent or present, length and width of mature leaf. Agglomerative
Hierarchical Cluster Analysis clearly separated the 50 accessions based on their close
association.
Keywords: Agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis, Morphological traits, Principal
Component Analysis.
