Partitioning of eggplant cultivars in north central Nigeria using gross vegetative and reproductive characters

Abstract

Eggplants emanating from a gene bank were studied. The aim was to partition and separate the cultivars into species level on the basis of their variable characters. Seeds were obtained from the seed gene bank of the University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria, and planted in the university research farm. Forty nine (49) cultivars at full maturity were examined using thirty (30) vegetative and thirty three (33 reproductive characters. Among the cultivars, the following characters remained unvaried: bud position (terminal), leaf type (simple), leaf arrangement (alternate), pubescence type (puberulent), venation type (pinnately netted), petal cohesion (fused), ovary position (superior), corolla shape (companulate), anther type (basifixed), filament adhesion (free) and symmetry of flower (actinomorphic). Some characters were moderately varied but not important to separate the cultivars. The prominent variables that formed the basis of partitioning the species are: leaf sizes, leaf shapes, leaf apices, number of leaf produced, plant height, number of days to produce flower, number of days to yield fruit, quantity of fruit produced (yield), fruit sizes, fruit colour, fruit shape, fruit stripe, fruit groove, fruit taste, fruit position, colour of petal and influorescence type. Based on these features, the cultivars are separated into eight (8) different taxonomic groups that may be assigned specific circumscription and named accordingly by taxonomists.

Character Association Studies in Groundnut (<i>Arachis hypogaea</i> L.)

“…The present report totally agrees with other studies where high correlations in reproductive characters have been reported [9]. It is expected that sizes of pods should determine the sizes and number of seeds present.…”