: A total of 67 watermelon accessions which include 37 accessions from Korean and 27 accessions from Turkish germplasm and 3 accessions of other related species from USA were investigated for morphological characteristics. The UPOV descriptor list for 56 characters (6 seedlings, 4 plants, 11 leaves, 5 flowers, 23 fruits and 7 seeds) was used in characterization. In addition, eight quantitative characters, hypocotyl length, cotyledon width, cotyledon length, fruit weight, fruit length, fruit width, thickness of outer layer of pericarp and soluble solid content were also measured. The 56 qualitatively scored characters were analyzed by principle coordinate analysis (PCoA) while the eight quantitative ones were subjected to principle component analysis (PCA). Morphological characterization result demonstrated that the accessions displayed high morphological diversity(how much percent?). A high level of phenotypic diversity was observed from the results of morphological characterization. However, plant growth habit and leaf blade flecking showed constant characters for all of the accessions. The Korean and Turkish watermelon genotypes are diverse groups and can be separated by both multivariate analysis of morphological characters although the grouping was more apparent in PCoS results.

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-Agastache rugosa, a member of the mint family (Labiatae), is a perennial herb widely distributed in East Asian countries. It is used in traditional medicine for the treatment of cholera, vomiting, and miasma. This study assessed the genetic diversity and population structures on 65 accessions of Korean mint A. rugosa germplasm based on inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers. The selected nine ISSR primers produced reproducible polymorphic banding patterns. In total, 126 bands were scored; 119 (94.4%) were polymorphic. The number of bands generated per primer varied from 7 to 18. A minimum of seven bands was generated by primer 874, while a maximum of 18 bands was generated by the primer 844. Six primers (815, 826, 835, 844, 868, and 874) generated 100% polymorphic bands. This was supported by other parameters such as total gene diversity (HT) values, which ranged from 0.112 to 0.330 with a mean of 0.218. The effective number of alleles (NE) ranged from 1.174 to 1.486 with a mean value of 1.351. Nei's genetic diversity (H) mean value was 0.218, and Shannon's information index (I) mean value was 0.343. The high values for total gene diversity, effective number of alleles, Nei's genetic diversity, and Shannon's information index indicated substantial variations within the population. Cluster analysis showed characteristic grouping, which is not in accordance with their geographical affiliation. The implications of the results of this study in developing a strategy for the conservation and breeding of A. rugosa and other medicinal plant germplasm are discussed.

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