Title : Characterization of some accessions of Crassocephalum (moench.) S. Moore from Nigeria using morphological traits
Abstract:
The consumption of vegetables is important to most Nigerians and the entire world due to their nutritional and medicinal benefits. However, there are some vegetables such as Crassocephalum which people have consumed for decades or centuries but are neglected due to low research attention, non-domestication and non-cultivation. Crassocephalum species have served as vegetables for decades, yet they remain neglected, underutilised, and sometimes classified as weeds in West and Central Africa. This plant has been naturalised in numerous regions of the world, including Asia, North America, Europe, and Phillippines. People who utilise the species in Africa and the world still depend largely on its spontaneous appearance in the wild, except for some herbalists who cultivate it for theurapeutic uses. Its domestication and cultivation are still at infant stage. Without the intervention of breeders, the full potential of this species would remain untapped. The inadequate information about the variability and traits association of these species hinders its improvement through breeding programme which could facilitate their domestication and cultivation, hence this study was initiated. Twenty-one accessions of Crassocephalum species were characterized in a Randomized Complete Block Design to determine intra and inter-specific variability and traits association. Descriptive statistics, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and correlation coefficients were used to analyze the data. The results revealed significant intra and inter-specific variability among the accessions characterized. The first three axes of PCA accounted for over 60% of total variation with leaf length, leaf width, days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, number of achenes/head and number of filled achenes/head as discriminants. Positive and significant phenotypic correlations were observed between leaf length and leaf width with petiole length, internode length, peduncle length, and number of days to maturity. High positive correlation was observed for number of capitula/plant with capitulum diameter and number of filled achenes per head. Hence, this study revealed that the principal contributors to total variation which are leaf length, leaf width, days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, number of achenes/head and number of filled achenes/head could be explored for improvement of Crassocephalum crepidioides, C. rubens and C. togoense to facilitate their domestication, cultivation and conservation.
