Morphological Characters of Guava landraces in Western and Coastal Kenya
Liharaka Mercy Kidaha *
Institute for Biotechnology Research, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
Amos Emitati Alakonya
Institute for Biotechnology Research, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
Aggrey Benard Nyende
Institute for Biotechnology Research, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Morphological characterization of guava landraces from Western and Coastal landraces was done using 13 qualitative and 2 quantitative descriptors. Root descriptors between the landraces in the two regions did not show differences while the leaf, fruit, branching of stem showed variations. Leaf shape varied, being oblong, trapezoidal, elliptical and ovate. Branching habits were either axial,erect or irregular. Ripe fruit color varied from pink to cream. Grouping of characters using unweighed neighbour joining (Darwin software) resulted to three clusters. The clusters had landraces within the region and others clustered across the region. The results revealed that Kenyan landraces varied morphologically within and across regions.
Keywords: Morphological variation, fruit character, Root, leaf shape, branching habit