Abstract:

To scientifically evaluate the bitter gourd resources in southern China, the authors conducted the diversity, correlation and cluster analysis on major botanical characters of 56 varieties, including the fruit length, fruit width, fruit weight, internode length, stem diameter, leaf length, and leaf width. The results showed that the coefficient of variation was between 8.81% and 19.44%, with the average of 14.21%, the CV of fruit weight was the largest (19.44%) and that of the fruit width was the smallest (8.81%). Correlation analysis found that the agronomic characters of plants were correlated, leaf length and leaf width were positively correlated with the correlation coefficient of 0.978, and the negative correlation coefficient between the fruit weight and internode length was 0.451. The 56 bitter gourd varieties were divided into 3 groups by cluster analysis, of which 92.86% of the varieties belonged to group 1 and group 2, and only 4 varieties were in group 3. This research could provide references for cultivation and genetic improvement of bitter gourd resources in southern China.

Key words: bitter gourd, botanical character, diversity analysis, correlation analysis, cluster analysis, genetic marker, genetic relationship