Abstract
Introduction: Morphological characterization provides a practical entry point for conserving and exploiting diversity in neglected crops such as snake gourd. Objective: This study assessed establishment, leaf and seed morphological variation among eight Nigerian snake gourd accessions at the early growth stage. Materials and Methods: Accessions collected from Anambra, Ebonyi, Imo, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo States were evaluated in a randomized complete block design with three blocks. Emergence was analysed by block-adjusted analysis of variance after arcsine-square-root transformation. Leaf shape, colour, lobing, margin, apex, surface and venation were scored, while seed-lot photographs were evaluated qualitatively for colour, outline, margin and surface. Simple-matching dissimilarities were summarized by UPGMA clustering and principal coordinate analysis. Results: Accession effects on emergence were significant (F7,14 = 8.12; p = 0.0005), whereas block effects were not significant (p = 0.211). Pooled emergence ranged from 16.7% in Imo-SG to 96.3% in Lagos-SG. Leaves ranged from broad-cordate and slightly or shallowly lobed to palmately and deeply lobed; seed lots differed visibly in brown-tone, oblong outline and degree of marginal scalloping. The first two ordination axes accounted for 64.4% of positive-eigenvalue variation. Conclusion: The accessions possess readily distinguishable early- stage phenotypes useful for germplasm identity, field curation and selection of contrasting parents. Quantitative seed morphometry and multi-environment validation are recommended before inferring genetic control.
Keywords: accession; germplasm; qualitative descriptors; seedling establishment; snake gourd
jaerem umeh
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