Bottle gourd (<i>Lagenaria siceraria</i>) is an important food, medicinal and utilitarian crop with a large pan tropical distribution. The two morphologically different types in the <i>siceraria</i> subspecies are sufficiently different to be considered as varieties but they are assigned into different taxonomic ranks. The genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) of 95 different accessions from the Nangui Abrogoua University collection used to confirm varietal status in bottle gourd have produced 22,575 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Cluster analyses conducted with 2,250 (9.96%) SNPs have distinctly separated hard-shelled from soft-shelled types. The analysis of 23 SNPs located in 11 genes coding for traits that differentiate the two types of gourd revealed that soft-shelled genes had about 21% fewer SNPs than those of hard-shelled that had more non-synonymous SNPs. Cluster analyses conducted with the 23 SNPs fitted well with the structure defined by the 2,250 SNPs, suggesting the implication of these SNPs in the varietal differentiation of bottle gourd. These changes along with the genetic relationships between the accessions provided a molecular proof supporting the status of two varieties. To prevent the confusions inherent to the use of synonyms and homonyms in bottle gourd, we suggest the terms "hard-shelled" and "soft-shelled" to designate respectively the varieties used as utensils and those grown for its edible seeds.

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The shea tree is among the socio‐economically and environmentally most important plants in the Sudano‐Sahelian region of Africa. Shea butter is internationally valued for use in pharmaceutical, cosmetic and confectionary industries. Scaling and describing phenological growth stages is of great importance in crops management. However, such phenological scale is still lacking for shea tree. To fill this gap, we documented the different growth stages of shea tree by referencing to the Biologische Bundesantalt, Bundessortenamt und Chemische Industrie (BBCH) scale. Eight of the ten principal growth stages (0–9) and 43 secondary growth stages (0–9) were described in shea tree. Among the eight principal stages, four were related to reproductive phenophases: inflorescence emergence stage (5), flowering stage (6), fruit development stage (7), and fruit maturity stage (8). The remaining four principal stages concerned vegetative phenophases and contained: bud development stage (0), leaf development stage (1), shoot development stage (3), and senescence stage (9). Observations of shea tree phenophases depicted asynchronous growth patterns with overlapping secondary growth stages of different principal stages within an individual tree canopy at the same time. The proposed phenological growth scale specific to shea tree but compatible with other crops is a valuable contribution for the implementation of crops management protocols and the standardisation of research between different laboratories.