Genetic diversity, variability and characterization of the agro-morphological traits of Northern Ghana Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa var. altissima) accessions

Abstract

Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa var. altissima), a bast fibre crop adapted to the warm climate of Northern Ghana, offers a great economic potential not yet explored for lack of information on its distribution, collection, and genetic diversity. Little variability is reported in exotic genotypes to merit trait improvement. The objective of this study is to investigate distribution and diversity in roselle of Northern Ghana. Twenty-five accessions collected from seven districts were field evaluated in a 5×5 lattice square design in three replications at twelve qualitative and five quantitative morphological traits. Data were analysed for within-and between-population variability and multivariate analysis. Large within-population variability of SDI 0.72 to 0.87 was identified in accessions of Kassena-Nankana East district. The most variable traits, plant height and branch number, varied from 184 cm to 284 cm with six accessions HA-44, HA-47, HA-43, HA-38, HA-52, and HA-42 having the tallest plants and least basal branching of four. Mean flowering time was between 96 and 104 days. Mean Euclidean distance of 3.03 ± 0.90 ranged from 0.41 to 5.17. Based on means across pairwise distances of 2.22 and 3.94, three accessions were divergent, namely, HA-61 (3.94), HA-57 (3.66) and HA-59 (3.63). Clustering and principal components analyses delineated three distinct groups. The first three PCs explained 100% of the variance. The ample diversity in roselle awaits exploitation for genetic improvement, particularly for fibre yield.

Morpho-agronomic and physiological characterization of African roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa L.) accessions at Hawassa, Ethiopia

“…While, plant growth habit and inner corolla color showed moderate diversity among the accession. Similar result were reported by(Ankrah et al, 2018b) and(Antonia et al, 2019).…”

Agro-morphological variability and prospects of genetic improvement of Hibiscus sabdariffa L. collections in some central Africa countries

“…It could be due to the plant materials used. Furthermore, the collar diameter values obtained (0.46 cm to 1.41 cm) are lower than those obtained by certain authors(Antonia et al 2019). The difference obtained could be due to the genetic variability of plant materials.The results obtained indicate signi cant differences among all the collections for all the morphological traits evaluated.…”

“…biomass, varied from 18.01 cm to 83.04 cm and 2.18 cm to 14.89 cm respectively. In similar work on Hibiscus sabdariffa,Antonia et al (2019) obtained plant height of H. sabdariffa from 184.83 ± 14.81 cm to 283.50 ± 27.00 cm. There was a slightly signi cant difference compared with the results obtained during this experiment.…”