Combining Ability and Performance Evaluation of Vegetative and Reproductive Traits of Hybrids of Basella alba var alba and Basella alba var rubra Morphotypes from Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Hybridization studies and reciprocal crosses were carried out on Basella alba var alba and Basella alba var rubra morphotypes in the family Basellaceae collected from various locations in the southwestern part of Nigeria. This was done to ascertain the possibility of gene exchange between the morphotypes and to examine the performance of the F1 hybrids produced in other to help in their genetic improvement. A total of 300 crosses were carried out between the Basella alba and Basella rubra morphotypes studied. From the Basella alba × Basella rubra 150 crosses, 19 individuals were raised out of which two did not grow beyond two leave stage. The hybrids had purple pigmentation. From the reciprocal 150 Basella rubra × Basella alba crosses, 21 hybrids were raised of which 3 failed to germinate beyond two leave stage and all the remaining had red pigmentation. The F1 hybrids obtained from the crosses showed no significant difference with the parents in the vegetative and reproductive characters studied. The hybrids obtained were not significantly different irrespective of the choice of maternal parent as the red pigmentation was dominant. It was concluded that the hybrids showed no clear superiority compared with the parents except that it matured earlier under our environmental conditions.