Twenty-seven morphological characteristics (13 quantitative and 14 qualitative) were used to evaluate the genetic diversity of 39 Abelmoschus accessions by hierarchic method of single linkage and principal component analysis for the grouping of the genotypes. Standardized average Euclidean distance was used as dissimilarity measure. Plants were grown in field conditions at the Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense, in Campos dos Goytacazes, Brazil, using randomized complete blocks design with four replications. The accessions groups formation based on the hierarchic method of single linkage showed similar results to those obtained by principal components analysis since both methods grouped A. esculentus and A. caillei accessions. The hierarchic method has grouped the genotypes in the same way as for the 27 descriptors (quantitative and qualitative) as for the 13 quantitative descriptors, demonstrating that qualitative descriptors had a little influence on the genotypic discrimination. Qualitative descriptors were able to correctly classify species, although they masked the genetic variability at the germplasm, not allowing a comprehensive survey of the genomes. The characters that less contributed for the genotypes discriminations were the epicalyx length, 100 seeds weight, number of stigma segments, plant height, leaf width, first flowering node and fruit length.
Abelmoschus spp.; genetic diversity; multivariate analysis; genetic distance; morphological descriptors
