Morphological Characterization of Sesbania Accessions using Multivariate Analysis

Forty accessions of Sesbania belonging to 13 species tracing their origin to India, Brazil, Australia and Philippines, were evaluated for 15 agro-morphological characters in Randomized Block Design with three replications. Accessions showed significant genetic variability for all the 15 characters. Euclidean distance (D²) between all possible pairs (780 pair comparisons) of accessions were calculated and used in unweighted pair group method with arithmetic average cluster analysis. The accessions were delineated into 7 clusters. The highest inter-cluster distance (33.44) was present between cluster 1 and 7 followed by distance of cluster 7 with cluster 2 and 3. Cluster 7 contained only one accession of bispinosa species and was isolated from other clusters. Majority of S. rostata species were grouped together in one cluster. Other clusters were heterogeneous. The composition of clusters indicated that geographic diversity is not the sole factor for determining the genetic diversity. The botanical origin of the species needs to be established. The study suggested that grouping of Sesbania accessions would facilitate in maintaining and utilizing the germplasm resources. Some potential pairs of accessions are suggested for their utilization in hybridization programme.