Assessment of Seed and Tuber Production Potential in Varieties of iSphenostylis stenocarpa/i(Africa Yam Bean)

摘要

Twenty accessions of African Yam Bean, grown at the Teaching and Research Farm of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso during the cropping seasons of May to November, 2014 and 2015 were assessed for genetic diversity and Genotype × Environment interaction effects on trait performance and their ability to produce tuber. The first six Principal Components jointly explained 70.30% of the total variation among the accessions. Vine length, branching pattern, pod number, pod length, seed number, and seed yield contributed mostly to the observed variations. Seed biometric traits were most variable and contributed 52% of total variation. Variance due to genotype accounted for 54.2%, environment 10.5% and G × E interaction accounted for 30.1% of the interaction sum of squares. Accessions, G2, G4, G47, G49 and G50 produced tubers, while accessions G6, G15, G31, G32 and G33 nodulated extensively. Conversely, there was a marginal reduction in seed yield in accessions that either produced tubers or nodules.