Lima bean, a highly important legume, serves as a source of protein, reducing nutritional dependency on meat and other beans, especially for needy populations. This crop, with production concentrated in the Northeast of Brazil, has been the subject of very few studies, considering the evaluation of varieties predominantly with indeterminate growth habit. The characterization of material presenting determinate growth, an agronomically important characteristic, may subsidize breeding programs. We characterize subsamples of determinate growth lima bean in morpho-agronomic terms and estimate genetic divergence. We identified pairs of divergent and complementary genotypes for crosses. The genotypes were grouped in six and five groups in regard to the Tocher and UPGMA methods, respectively, for the quantitative traits. For the qualitative traits, three groups were formed. Analyses of canonical variables identified traits related to production of importance for variability. The study shows the importance of characterization of new genotypes for conservation and future utilization.
Phaseolus lunatus; protein source; growth habit; multivariate analysis
