The wild oats are an important source of genes for breeding programs and their characterization is essential for effective conservation and use. This study aimed to evaluate the genetic divergence among 71 subsamples of wild oats (A. abyssinica, A. barbata, A. brevis, A. fatua, A. longiglumis, A. sterilis, A. vaviloviana and A. wiestii) based on 25 multicategoric and quantitative traits. Analyzes of variance, for quantitative traits, and multivariate, for both types of characters, were carried out. The UPGMA clustering, based on average Euclidean distance (multicategoric characters), and the complete linkage, based on Mahalanobis distance (quantitative traits), were the most appropriate methods to illustrate the relationship among the subsamples. The hairiness of the base of the grain was the trait with the greatest relative contribution to genetic divergence (32.16%), whereas the smallest contribution was the hairiness of the uppermost node (0.081%). The subsamples differed for twenty traits: hairiness of sheath of lower leaf, margin of leaf below flag leaf, uppermost node, external surface of lemma and base of the grain; position of the flag leaf and panicle branches; frequency of plants with flag leaf curved; intensity of hairiness of the uppermost node and glaucosity of lemma; orientation of branches in the panicle; length of the basal hairs of the grain, rachilla, panicle, glumes and plant; color of lemma, awn type, number of grains per spikelet, and cycle. The germplasm has high genetic variability and genes of interest for the improvement of oats.
Avena ssp; descriptors; multicategoric variables; multivariate analysis
