R.L. KARUWAL1,2, SUHARSONO3*, A. TJAHJOLEKSONO3, and N. HANIF4
Cowpea is one of the crops that have a lot of potential to be utilized as raw food resource in the Southwest Maluku district. The objective of this study was to evaluate local cowpea cultivars from Southwest Maluku under different locations based on morphological characters. The research was conducted in Ambon and Bogor using randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. As many as seven local cultivars and three cultivars from ILETRI were evaluated. Observations were conducted on 18 morphological characters. The results showed that morphological characters were significantly affected by cultivars on each location. In general: KM3, KM4, and KM6 cultivars have the highest value in some morphology characters. Correlation analysis showed a significant correlation between the number of nodes with number of leaves followed by seed number plant-1 with seed weight plant-1 and loci number pod-1 with seed number pod-1 . Principal component analysis showed that there were nine principal components and clustering in two clusters. The local cultivars have the highest genetic potential in this study and could be selected as plant materials in future plant breeding program.
Key words: Different environments, local cowpea, Southwest Maluku, morphological characters
Key findings: Cowpea cultivar KM3 was the best genotype at both locations i.e., Ambon and Bogor, Indonesia. It also showed similar stability in some characters and almost equal with cultivars from ILETRI in these locations.