In the collection and production areas of Côte d'Ivoire, the genotypes of the C. canephora coffee gene pools are designated by numbers. This method of designation often leads to confusion, as the same genotypes may have been crossed. To solve this problem, several techniques can be used to evaluate and analyze each genotype, including morphological, enzymatic and molecular characterization. Among these techniques, morphological characterization appears to be the least costly and reveals diversity as perceived by farmers and breeders. The aim of this study was to determine the discriminating morphological characters for the recognition of pure Guinean and Congolese genotypes in experimental plots. Twenty-three coffee genotypes, including 12 genotypes from the Guinean pool and 11 genotypes from the Congolese pool, were used. Ten traits were evaluated. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed significant differences between the three populations, namely Guinean, pure Congolese and mixed Congolese genotypes, for tree height (p = 0.0003) and trunk internode length, number of plagiotropic stages, acumen, fruit disc relief, fruit disc size and fruit peduncle length (p < 0.001). Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) revealed that fruit stalk length, number of plagiotropic stages and disc size were the most discriminating traits of the three Coffea canephora gene pools, with fairly good precision.

Keywords: Agromorphological characterization, Coffea canephora, Ivory Coast