Abstract
Morphological parameters of several Jatropha species, namely Jatropha curcas L., Jatropha gossypifolia L., Jatropha podagrica Hook., Jatropha integerrima Jacq. and Jatropha multifida L. were subjected to quantitative analysis within the present study. Twelve traits of the leaves, fruits and seeds were analysed: leaf length, leaf width, leaf length/width ratio, petiole length, petiole width, fruit length, fruit width, fruit length/width ratio, seed length, seed width, fruit stalk length and fruit stalk width were subjected to Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis. Highly significant positive correlations have been noted, while negative correlation was observed between leaf width and leaf length/width ratio, fruit width and leaf length/width ratio. Traits such as leaf length, leaf width and leaf length/width ratio contributed significantly along with other traits to discriminate the studied Jatropha species. J. podagrica and J. integerrima were found to have more similarities, with a stronger coefficient of agglomeration (69.072) than J. curcas and J. podagrica with 315.028 coefficient of agglomeration respectively. The generated dendrogram showed the relationship between the studied Jatropha species, whereas great affinity was noted between J. podagrica and J. multifida as compared with J. gossypifolia and J. integerrima which are distantly related. The closeness observed between J. podagrica and J. multifida is in line with their current sub-generic grouping.
Highlights
Jatropha L. is a morphologically diverse and geographically widespread genus of 150-175 woody species (Dehgan, 1982)
When leaf length was correlated with leaf width, the degree of affinity was 0.816 and 0.338 when correlated with petiole width, but when leaf length was correlated against leaf length, it was 1,000
When leaf width was correlated with leaf length/width ratio, the degree of resemblance was -0.317, whereas it was 0.380 when compared with fruit width and 1.000 when correlated against fruit width
Summary
Jatropha L. is a morphologically diverse and geographically widespread genus of 150-175 woody species (Dehgan, 1982). The genus Jatropha belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae and is a very diverse subtropics and tropical genus which includes succulent, caudiciform species, herbaceous perennial and woody species (Nwokocha et al, 2011). Hutchinson and Dalziel (1958) recognized 8 species of Jatropha in West-Tropical Africa, while Ratha and Paramathma (2009) described 12 species of Jatropha in India, using morphological traits. A range of economic importance of Jatropha species has been reported, most especially J. curcas yields oil of highly marketable biodiesel value (Agarwal and Agarwal, 2007; Akbar et al, 2009). J. podagrica Hook. seeds yield 40% of oil known as pinheon oil or “oil infernale”
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