DIVA-GIS based insight into geographical distribution and diversity spectrum of Indian sunnhemp (Crotalaria juncea L.) accessions suitable for diversified applications

Abstract

Commercial prospects of sunnhemp inspired present study to understand geographical distribution pattern(s) and to scale agro-morphological diversity spectrum of forty-four sunnhemp accessions naturalized across diverse habitats of India. Field experiment revealed broad spectrum diversity for all the 11 agro-morphological traits. Wider range of plant height (110.50 to 173.17 cm), number of pods per plant (35.33 to 143.00), seeds per pod (6.33-15.17g) and seed yield per plant (8.27-29.43g) highlighted the adequacy of present genetic resources to improve sunnhemp for diversified applications. Principal component analysis of the agro-morphological characters identified the first PC with 1109.6 eigen value explaining 61.70% of total variation followed by PC-II (22.9%) and PC-III (11.1%). In PC-I significant contribution was made by traits like NLP, NPP and PH. Agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis grouped all accessions into four distinct seed producing clusters irrespective of their origin. Cluster wise mean values suggested that cluster-II is the best with outstanding trait values for majority of traits. DIVA-GIS based analysis identified accessions from Rajasthan, Western Gujarat and Jharkhand with high diversity index for number of leaves/plant. But, accessions from North West Jharkhand and Maharashtra with highest diversity index for seed yield/plant.