Abstract:

Scarlet Eggplant seeds (Solanum aethiopicum L.) from some West
African countries, particularly Ghana and Togo, had been collected under
the auspices of the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources
(IBPGR).
Some other seeds had been obtained from Uganda and other
African countries.
A total of forty-four accessions of Solanum aethiopicum groups Gilo,
Kumba and Shum and S. anguivi Lam were grown for characterisation and
evaluation.
A study of these collections was made using morphological
and biochemical characters.
Seventy-four vegetative and floral characters
were recorded on each accession.
The collected data were subject to
/
Cluster Analysis and Principal component Analysis for numerical Taxonomy.
The numerical taxonomy studies showed that species, groups and accessions
could be identified by such means. Some morphotypes or cultivars can be
differentiated.
diversity.
S. aethiopicum was shown to have a wide range of genetic
Five accessions belonging to groups Gilo and Shum were subjectively
selected for studies of variations between and within accessions. Analysis
of variance indicated that some characters could be used to differentiate
accessions or cultivars, but not groups or species.