Assessment of genetic diversity in elephant foot yam [Amorphophallus paeoniifolius (Dennst.) Nicolson var. Campanulatus (Decne.) sivad.]

Wide range of genetic variability was observed in morphological characters like the surface of the pseudo stem, pseudo stem color, leaf spot, stalk of the leaflet, nature of rachis, shape of rachis, color of corm surface top, the color of corm surface bottom and color of flesh while there are no variation were observed for traits viz; the number of secondary partition/primary partition, number of primary partition/secondary partition, leaflet spot and stalk of a leaflet. Out of 18 accessions, only two accessions viz; Selection −2 and C3 were found to be diverse type in respect to traits viz; surface of pseudo stem and corm shape which having tubercled pseudo stem, respectively. The thickness of the pseudo stem base had also exhibited a highly significant correlation with the fresh weight of corm/ plant, height of the corm and diameter of corm. Leptokurtic and positive skewness were exhibited for traits weight of cormel/plant and diameter of corm it indicating that these traits are governed by dominant-based complementary gene action and involving fewer numbers of genes having an increasing effect in the inheritance of these traits. The highest loaded variables in PC1, PC2, PC3 and PC4 were pseudo stem height (cm), weight of cormel /plant (g), length of primary partition (cm) and diameter of corm (cm), respectively. Tuber character i.e., diameter of corm as well as foliage characters, especially pseudo stem height and length of primary partition, is an important trait in distinguishing various accessions of elephant foot yam.