African yam bean (AYB) is an affordable protein source capable of diversifying the food base in sub-Saharan Africa. However, research efforts made towards the crop's improvement and in expanding production are limited. This study characterized 169 AYB accessions at Jimma, Ethiopia, using 31 phenotypic characters. The analysis of variance revealed highly significant (P < 0.01) differences for days to 50% flowering, days to first flowering, leaf area, number of seeds per pod, pod length, seed thickness, total seed weight, petiole length and significant (P < 0.05) difference for terminal leaf length. Accession TSs62B produced the highest number of seeds per pod (17.65) and recorded the highest 100 seed weight (25.30 g), while 3A was the earliest to flower at an average of 84.50 d. Principal component analysis (PCA) of qualitative traits attributed 77.6% of observed variations to the first five principal components, of which the first two PC axes accounted for 53.6% of total variations. Cluster analysis and PCA biplot distinctly grouped the accessions into two major groups, cluster I had the highest number of accessions (108). The analytical approaches used confirmed considerable diversity across the germplasm with a distance matrix ranging from 0.37 to 0.85. The extent of diversity reflected in the current study provides breeders the baseline information to design breeding strategies, which might help identify materials for release as variety or parental lines for hybridization programmes.

中文翻译：

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来自不同生态区的非洲山药豆（Sphenostylis stenocarpa Hochst ex. A. Rich. Harms）种质的形态特征和基因型特征

非洲山药豆 (AYB) 是一种经济实惠的蛋白质来源，能够使撒哈拉以南非洲的食物基础多样化。然而，针对作物改良和扩大生产所做的研究工作是有限的。本研究使用 31 个表型特征表征了埃塞俄比亚 Jimma 的 169 个 AYB 种质。方差分析显示高度显着（磷< 0.01) 到 50% 开花天数、到第一次开花天数、叶面积、每个豆荚的种子数、豆荚长度、种子厚度、种子总重、叶柄长度和显着 (磷< 0.05) 末端叶长度的差异。加入TSs62B每荚产生最多种子数（17.65），记录最高的100粒重（25.30 g），而3A最早开花，平均84.50 d。定性特征的主成分分析 (PCA) 将 77.6% 的观察到的变异归因于前五个主成分，其中前两个 PC 轴占总变异的 53.6%。聚类分析和 PCA 双图明显地将种质分为两个主要组，聚类 I 的种质数量最多（108）。使用的分析方法证实了种质的相当大的多样性，距离矩阵从 0.37 到 0.85。当前研究中反映的多样性程度为育种者提供了设计育种策略的基线信息，