Morphological Characterization and Hybridization of Talinum Triangulare Land Races for Desirable Metric Characters in South Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

Seven (7) Land races of Talinum triangulare (Jacq.) Willd obtained from different part of major Talinum producing states of Nigeria federation were grown at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Nigeria, in 2002 and 2003 cropping seasons for morphological characterization and hybridization for desirable characters. The objectives was to characterise and describe the differences observed in the land races and thus established the potential of local or traditional cultivars as sources of materials for future crop improvement and afford availability of characterized and improved planting materials to farmers. The result of the qualitative characters revealed great variations in growth habit, flower colour, style bearing stigma, inflorescence, leaf shape, stem and pods colours. Plant colours were relevant in term of their carotenoid properties and attractiveness to insect's pollination. The colour varied from white flowers to purple and pink flowers in P₅, P₂ and others (P₁, P₃, p₄, P₆ and P₇) respectively. There were significant variation at (P<0.01) probability level in the land races for quantitative characters such as final plant height and at flowering, number of branches per plant and at flowering, number of leaves per plant and at flowering, leaf area and fresh shoots yield. The F₁ hybrids also showed significant differences in these desirable metric characters, thus indicating that the land races of Talinum triangulare are genetically diverse and could be explored in the development of single cross hybrids for high yield. The implication of the results to plant breeding, germplasm collection and conservations as well as quality assurance is discussed.