Morphological Characterization of 22 Accessions of Pigeon Pea [Cajanus cajan (L) Millsp.]

Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan [L] Millsp.) is a multipurpose legume crop that provides food fodder and wood for small scale farmers. However, it remains one of the underutilised crops with limited research done so far for the crop diversification and improvement. In this study, the phenotypic diversity of 22 accessions of pigeon pea was evaluated. The Seeds were collected from ICRISAT Niamey, Niger. The study was carried out at the biological garden and at the central research laboratory of the University of Lagos. Viability test was done on the collected seeds before planting in a polythene pot. The phenotypic traits measured include both the quantitative and qualitative traits. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences among accessions for all quantitative traits, except the seed length, seed breadth, seed thickness and the number of germinated seeds per pot. For qualitative traits, seed colour pattern and primary seed colour were diverse, other qualitative traits measured in this study showed moderate level of variation. The results for cluster analysis for both qualitative and quantitative traits grouped the accessions into two major clusters. In all the dendrograms, accessions ISC 147, ISC 24, ISC 157 and ISC 185 were varied and showed good performance for morphological traits analysed as well. The result of the phenotypic diversity observed in this study can help in parental selection for subsequent plant breeding.