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Bambara groundnut [Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.] is an indigenous legume crop in Africa. It has comparable value to other legumes for food and nutritional security in the continent. However, small-scale farmers continue cultivating unimproved landrace varieties over the production areas in sub-Saharan Africa. Bambara groundnut landraces exist as heterogeneous mixtures of seeds, which typically contain a few to several seed morpho-types that may embrace wide genetic diversity. In this study, the agro-morphological variations of 213 Bambara groundnut landraces were evaluated to determine the presence of within- and between-landraces of pod and seed morphology, out of which only 49 were used to access their genetic variability using 9 agronomic traits while 158 landraces were used to determine leaf morphology. Most of the landraces displayed pointed, round and yellowish pod colour, with grooved and oval seed shapes. For leaf morphology, 49.4% had round leaves, while 21.5% had elliptical leaves, with 55.7% landraces being heterogeneous possessing more than one leaf shape. Significant differences (P< 0.05) were detected for seed traits and leaf morphology including seed height, canopy spread and terminal width. Leaf morphology could be a useful marker for strategic breeding and genetic conservation of Bambara groundnut.

Keywords: Bambara groundnut, genetic diversity, Landraces, Leaf morphology, Partially balanced design

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