THE CLASSIFICATION OF A SESBANIA SESBAN (SSP SESBAN) COLLECTION .1. MORPHOLOGICAL ATTRIBUTES AND THEIR TAXONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE

A collection of 108 accessions of Sesbania sesban (Fabacea, Papilionoi deae) was grown in the field and classified using morphological attrib utes. Numerical analysis resulted in the division of the collection in to 2 major groups, which corresponded to the different varieties that exist in the subspecies sesban. The varieties sesban and bicolor could be distinguished from variety nubica mainly on the basis of their lea flet number and size, seed size, seed colour and growth habit. The var iety nubica could be further subdivided into 5 groups by both the aver age linkage and the Partitioning Around Medoids (PAM) algorithms. The average linkage algorithm differentiated accessions mainly on the basi s of quantitative characters, whereas the PAM method used qualitative attributes for grouping accessions. This classification will assist in the selection of germplasm for further evaluation and/or breeding.