Diversity analysis of rice bean (Vigna umbellata (Thunb.) Ohwi and Ohashi) collections from North Eastern India using morpho-agronomic traits

Ricebean (Vigna umbellata (Thunb.) Ohwi and Ohashi), believed to be domesticated in Myanmar–Thailand region, is grown in the North-Eastern hills of India as a pulse, vegetable, and fodder crop. Depending on the farming system where it is grown, plant types vary. Sixty-five accessions collected from across the North-Eastern hills of India were characterized for ten quantitative and ten qualitative morpho-agronomic traits using a minimal descriptor. Different data transformation and dissimilarity calculation methods were used to assess diversity. Mean dissimilarity using the average taxonomic distance was 14.05 (0.141) and using Gower’s general coefficient was 0.249. Both methods identified four clusters where one of the clusters contained more than 70% of the accessions. One of the accessions, BKSB-40, was identified as a unique accession. Quantitative traits were further grouped into qualitative factors, which gave an idea of farmer's preference for plant type and indicated wide difference between accessions collected from areas bordering Myanmar and East Nepal.