Morphological descriptors of young plants in Acmella spp.

In young plants, the identification of descriptors guarantees both genotype conservation and early differentiation. Therefore, the aim of this study was to propose and validate the morphological descriptors for young plants of local Acmella spp. accessions to contribute to the assessment of genetic variability. To this end, testing was performed based on 19 Acmella spp. Accessions 36 days after emergence (DAE) for the descriptors: stem color (SCOL), leaf color (LCOL), leaf shape (LSHP), margin color (MCOL), leaf margin (LMAR), and number of leaves (NL). Multivariate analyses were performed to validate the results. NL and SCOL contributed the most to data variance. Jamb-16 had the largest genetic distance as a function of LSHP and MCOL. The tested descriptors provided genotype differentiation through the formation of three groups. MCOL, LSHP, and SCOL made it possible to differentiate between the different accessions and even the separate species of Acmella spp. They can also help producers easily identify A. oleracea (L.) R. K. Jansen and A. ciliata (Kunth) Cass. in the field.