MORPHOLOGICAL AND GENETIC VARIATION STUDIES IN COWPEA GENOTYPES [VIGNA UNGUICULATA (L.)] WALP

Phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) and genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV), heritability in broad sense and genetic advance as percent of mean were studied for ten quantitative characters in 40 genotypes of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp)originated from different sources. Based on the analysis, it was observed that seed yield and number of clusters had high PCV, GCV, heritability and genetic advance as percent of mean, which suggested that direct selection for these traits would be fruitful in genetic improvement of cowpea. Also the correlation coefficients at phenotypic and genotypic levels were carried with the different characters of cowpea. The study revealed that the seed yield per plant showed significant and positive association with plant height, number of clusters, number of pods, pod length and number of seeds per pod while it was negatively correlated with primary branches and 100 seed weight. Morphological variations on flower colour, seed colour and seed size releaved that much variations were present in these characters. Seed colour ranged from buff, tan, cream, white, mottled, brown, dark brown and black. Flower colour viz., white, yellow, light violet, dark violet, shades were found in the genotypes studied.