Department of Oilseeds, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore -641003. India
Nineteen genotypes of bunch groundnut were grouped into nine clusters. HPS (Hand picked aad selected seeds) groundnut genotypes were clustered into different clusters though the character kernel weight was not included. It revealed that the presence of morphological differences between HPS types and other genotypes. The clusters II Vs IX, II Vs VIII and I Vs IX were divergent clusters. Hence genotypes in these clusters namely, TNAU 364, TNAU 390, VRI 2, TNAU 385 (Cluster I), TNAU 412 (Cluster 11), TNAU 387 (Cluster VIII) and TNAU 407 (cluster IX) couId be crossed among themselves to produce wider segregation among the progenies. The cluster VI showed superiority for pod yield, matured pods and reproductive efficiency. The characters namely total number of flowers, primary and secondary branches contributed more towards total divergence. Hence selection could be practised for these characters because of the presence of more variability.
