Phynotypic variation in spider plant species (gyandropis gynandra) from Central, Eastern, Northern and West Nile Uganda

Abstract

Spider plant is the second most highly cultivated indigenous vegetable. It is most commonly known as African spider plant or spider wasp. The vegetable is highly nutritious and mostly grown in the sub Saharan Africa. Due to its high nutritious nature, the plants can compact malnutrition among the communities that grow it. Spider plant has been considered as a weed and little research has been carried out which have not comprehensively evaluated the genetic potential of the plant. The aim of this study was; (a) To determine variation in morphology of the different genotypes grown in Uganda. (b) To determine variation in growth and yield of the different genotypes grown in Uganda. Four genotypes were planted in the site in a completely randomized block design with 3 replications. The characterization of the spider plants was based on the following phenotypic traits. Days to emergence, days to flowering, days to 50% flowering, days to 50% podding, morphology, plant height, leaf area, branch number, leaf number, shoot number, fresh and dry weight, pod number, pod length, weight of 10 pods, and weight of 1000 seeds. The data was subjected to analysis with the help of R studio.