Abstract

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is an important subsistence food crop in Central African Republic. Data collections for the agronomical and morphological characterization provided 59 accessions of Cassava and were subjected to multivariate analysis to discriminate groups of accessions according to their morphological features. The Eigenvalues of the principal axes extracted from the multivariate analysis indicated that the first two factors explained 7% of the total variability. Generally, morphological variation of the pool of accessions grown in different cassava production sites largely covers the overall variability and therefore there is no structuring in relation to agro-morphological characters from the sites. The dendrogram established on 59 accessions in relation to agronomical and morphological character is divided into two groups. Group A is the smallest with 12 accessions, while Group B has 47. Most of 59 accessions were different on all 44 descriptors. However, some accessions reported under different names, such as "ICRA and six months", "Boots and Assa", were identical on all the characters. In addition, some accessions collected in different places under one name, such as "Six months," have a likeness of all phenotypic traits.

Key words: Agronomical, cassava, diversity, morphological.