Abstracto
- Furcraea spp. is a traditional and popular natural fibre used in rural areas of Central and South America for clothing and handcraft since ancient times. Recently, this crop has been used in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. Therefore, it is necessary to quantify the standing genetic diversity and morphological variation. In this study, a total of 134 accessions of Furcraea spp. collected across 12 provinces of Colombia with different agro-ecologies were established ex situ in Rionegro, Colombia, and evaluated to understand its genetic variation. Twenty-three phenotypic traits (17 qualitative and 6 quantitative) were used to assess the morphological diversity through both descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis using multiple correspondence (MCA) and principal components analysis (PCA), respectively. All examined accessions showed variation through the studied variables. However, the Shannon–Weaver index revealed an average score of 0.57, indicating intermediate phenotypic diversity for the qualitative variables. MCA indicated that the qualitative variation among the accessions was mainly related to the shape of the spike and texture, and the shape and waxy condition of the leaves. PCA explains 72.7% of the total variation in the first two axes. For both analyses, accessions were grouped without a distinct and apparent geographical pattern. The length and width of the leaf and spine, and the shape of the spine were relevant to separate accessions. These results could be useful for germplasm management and pre-breeding programs aiming to enhance traits of interest. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.
