Numerical taxonomic study of different mandarin oranges using morphological characters

Eight different Khasi Mandarin biotypes, collected from different parts of north east India and two mandarin oranges namely Nagpur Mandarin and Coorg Mandarin collected from Maharashtra and Karnataka, respectively, were utilised for hierarchical agglomerative clustering analysis using sixty-five morphological characters. Euclidean distance measure were performed by re-scaled reversed absolute squared Euclidean similarity coefficient matrix and the dendrograms were prepared by five different methods. Three to four different clusters were formed in the dendrograms. The first cluster contained biotypes collected from Dumduma, Zero, Golaghat and Lakhimpur. Biotypes collected from Nagpur and Bangalore constitute a separate cluster. In most of the dendrograms, biotypes of Barapani, Kokrajhar and Nagazanka fall under the third cluster and the last cluster contains biotype from Jorhat. Thus variation within and between mandarin orange types were determined. Data thus generated confirms north-east India as one of the centre of origin for mandarin oranges.