Department of Horticulture, Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar 751 003
Genetic divergence in a set of 16 genotypes of betelvine measured using Mahalanobis' D2-technique, indicated the existence of substantial genetic diversity. The genotypes were grouped into 5 different clusters. The clustering pattern of genotypes was random and did not follow the geographical origin. A wide range of variation was found in the cluster mean values in respect of number of leaves/vine, leaf area, petiole length, internode length, leaf length, leaf breadth, number of laterals/vine, vine length, diameter of internode, chlorophyll a and b and 100-leaf weight of which number of laterals/vine as well as leaf length were the potent variables These may be used in selecting diverse parents in hybridization programme.
