Genetic Diversity in Cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp]

One hundred cowpea genotypes were evaluated for eleven metric characters to quantify the genetic diversity existing among them by using Mahalanobis D² statistics. The genotypes fell into eleven clusters. Among the eleven quantitative characters studied, 100-seed weight contributed maximum (75.73%) towards divergence followed by plant height (8.28%) and seed yield (6.30%). Cluster VI had minimum days to first flower opening and days to maturity, and also had maximum number of pods per plant, pod length, number of seeds per pod and seed yield. Cluster IX exhibited lowest means for seed yield, 100 seed weight, number of seeds per pod, pod length, primary branches and plant height. The genotypes from Cluster VI and IX, which have high and low cluster means for the majority of the characters are suggested as parents for hybridization.