agro-morphological variability and prospects of genetic improvement of hibiscus sabdariffa l. accessions in some central african countries

Objective: hibiscus sabdariffa is a mallow plant with diverse economic and pharmacological potential that is underutilized in cameroon. this study aimed to evaluate the genetic variability of 36 accessions from several countries of the central african sub-region.methods: the experiment was conducted as an alpha lattice design (6 x 6) with two replications at yaoundé i university. data from five plants in each plot per replication were randomly selected from the middle row and harvested at the 50% flowering stage. principal component analysis (pca), hierarchical clustering analysis, and subsequent discriminant analysis were carried out to group the studied accessions.results: the results of the analysis of variance showed significant differences (p < 0.0001) among accessions for the studied agro-morphological traits. the height of the first branch (hfb) ranged from 2.62 to 14.89 cm and the plant height (ph) ranged from 20.66 to 83.68 cm. chlorophyll content (cc) was negatively correlated with the date of initiation of the first flower bud (difb) (-0.6), date of the 50% of flower buds (d50f) (-0.4), and date of flowering (df) (-0.3). difb was negatively correlated with ph (-0.4) but collar diameter (cd) was positively correlated with ph (0.6) and number of branches (nb) (0.7). in addition, d50f was positively correlated with df (0.7), difb (0.5), nb (0.5), hfb (0.3), and cd (0.3). ph had a positive correlation with hfb (0.4). difb showed a positive correlation with nb (0.4). cluster analysis grouped the accessions into three groups of 13, 13, and 10 entries. no differences were found between the accession origins for the characteristics examined. high heritability was observed for growth traits such as ph (0.88), hfb (0.87), nb (0.78), and cd (0.75). these characteristics also showed very high genetic gain (as the percent of the mean).conclusion: large genetic diversity, high heritability, and high genetic gain for the studied traits indicate a great potential for selection and genetic improvement of these accessions in h. sabdariffa. the association of quantitative variables and accessions in the pca indicated that 10 top accessions represent potential parents for breeding programs of h. sabdariffa.