The study was conducted at village level in-situ center, Jawhar block of Palghar district of Maharashtra during the year 2017 and 2018 to characterize 20 accessions of finger millet. Data was collected on morphology, plant growth and yield contributing characters. Traits like erect growth habit (80 percent); semi-compact ear (60 percent); partially enclosed seeds by glumes (60 percent) and light brown colour of seed (75 percent) was found dominant among studied accessions. The results indicated that studied landraces exhibited variability in finger number (6 to 14), finger length (7 to 16 cm) and maturity days (85 to 117). The results of study also showed that productive tiller number was most varied trait (29.37 percent), followed by ear head length (21.98 percent) and finger number (19.42 percent). Among the studied traits, finger width showed the lowest variation (7.65 percent). Analysis of variance showed that all the characters were highly significant among the accessions. This potential gene pool needs to be conserved and may be explored for crop improvement in future.

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Background: Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) is the most important and diverse grain legume crop grown in tropics and subtropics. Assessment of local and regional plant genotypes is important for identifying diversity among germplasm and for crop improvement. The objective of present study was to characterize cowpea accessions collected from various households of western Maharashtra, India by using morphological traits.Methods: The field experiments were conducted on cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) at BAIF-CRS Urulikanchan, during Kharif 2018 and summer 2019. The experiments were arranged in row design with minimum 10 individuals of each accessions spaced at 60 x 30 cm. Recommended package of practices were adopted throughout experimentation. Result: Traits such as semi-prostrate habit (41.9 percent), determinate growth (77.4 percent), straight pod (51.6 percent), smooth seed (71.0 percent), elliptic shape (67.7 percent) and yellowish-white seed colour (37.6 percent) were dominant in studied accessions. Time for first flowering ranged from 28 to 65 days; pod length ranged between 9.60 cm to 27.48 cm; seeds per pod observed between 7.20 to 16.40; 100-seed weight ranged between 12.00 to 36.00 g. Analysis of variance showed that all the characters were highly significant among the accessions. Results revealed that studied accessions are valuable germplasm for future breeding programs.

A b s t r a c t A r t i c l e I n f oPresent study deals with survey and documentation of wild edible plants (WEPs) in Dhadgaon/Akrani region of Nandurbar district. Present paper is the first documentation of WEPs used by local communities in Nandurbar district. Data on about 91 wild edible plant species in 69 genera of 40 families was recorded. Majority of WEPs belongs to family Fabaceae (11 species), Araceae (7), Asparagaceae (6), Malvaceae (6), Amaranthaceae (5), Apocynaceae (5), Asteraceae (4), Dioscoriaceae (4), Rubiaceae (4) and Cucurbitaceae (3). The genera represented by the highest number of species are Chlorophytum (5 species) followed by Dioscorea (4), Amaranthus (3) and 2 species each from Amorphophallus, Arisaema, Bauhinia, Cassia, Launea, Moringa, Smithia, Sterculia, Vigna and Ziziphus. Most of the species were consumed as leafy vegetable (46 species) or fruits (34 species). More than one plant part is used from 14% of the species. These wild edible plants are sources of food security for local people, especially those living in remote rural areas. Some species are wild relatives of crops that could be used for crop improvement program in future. Several species have potential values for further domestication and commercial exploitation which will help in biodiversity conservation and sustainable utility. IntroductionMore than 12,000 plant species considered edible by humans, i.e., plants for human consumption account for about 5% of the total plant species of the world (Kunkel, 1983). It is estimated that in India about 800 species are consumed as wild edible plants (Singh and Arora, 1978). Wild edible plants (WEPs) refer to species that are harvested or collected from their wild natural habitats and used as food for human consumption (Lulekal et al., 2011;Heywood, 2011; Seal, 2012). WEPs play a major role in meeting the nutritional requirement of the tribal population in remote areas (Sundriyal and Sundriyal, 2001). WEPs serve as supplementary food for non-indigenous people and are one of the primary sources of cash income for poor communities (Uprety et al., 2012;Ghorbani et al., 2012;Menendez-Baceta et al., 2012). WEPs have an important role in ensuring food security and improve the nutrition in the diets of many people in developing countries (Lulekal et al., 2011;Ghorbani et al., 2012 Materials and methods Study areaThe study area is situated in Satpuda ranges. The study was carried out in 12 villages in Dhadgaon region of Nandurbar district. Nandurbar district is situated in Northern part of the state of Maharashtra bordering the state of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Nandurbar district is situated between 20º to 21º North latitude and 74º 55ʹ and 76º 59ʹ East longitude. The forest in the district covers an area of 4732.199 sq. km. (Tayade et al., 2016) ( Fig. 1). Data collectionFor data collection household survey and field studies were carried out during different seasons of the year (2014)(2015)(2016). Data of wild edible plants were documented through different interview methods ...

provides livelihood to several tribal people in India, where the flowers are used for extraction of sweet juices having multiple applications. Certain trees have more value as judged by the tribal people mainly based on yield and quality performance of the trees, and these trees were selected for the genetic diversity analyses. Genetic diversity of 48 candidate Mahua trees from Etapalli, Dadagaon, and Jawhar, Maharashtra, India, was assessed using ISSR markers. Fourteen ISSR primers revealed a total of 132 polymorphic bands giving overall 92% polymorphism. Genetic diversity, in terms of expected number of alleles (Ne), the observed number of alleles (Na), Nei's genetic diversity (H), and Shannon's information index () was 1.921, 1.333, 0.211, and 0.337, respectively, and suggested lower genetic diversity. Region wise analysis revealed higher genetic diversity for site Etapalli ( = 0.206) and lowest at Dhadgaon ( = 0.140). Etapalli area possesses higher forest cover than Dhadgaon and Jawhar. Additionally, in Dhadgaon and Jawhar trees are restricted to field bunds; both reasons might contribute to lower genetic diversity in these regions. The dendrogram and the principal coordinate analyses showed no region-specific clustering. The clustering patterns were supported by AMOVA where higher genetic variance was observed within trees and lower variance among regions. Long-distance dispersal and/or higher human interference might be responsible for low diversity and higher genetic variance within the candidate trees.