Abstract
A total of 39 sweet potato genotypes (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) were grown at Malaysia Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI), Industrial Crop Research Centre, in Bachok, Kelantan. The aim of the study is to classify sweet potato germplasm for a future breeding programme in Malaysia. Twenty-seven phenotypic characters were graded using the International Potato Centre (CIP) using standard sweet potato descriptors. The principal components analysis (PCA) was performed to identify the main characteristics to be used in phenotyping. PC1, PC2 and PC3 had eigen value of more than 1.0 and accounted for roughly 78.00 % of all the morphological characters. The scree plot clearly shows that the semi-curved line was obtained for vine characters with a high variability of 95.14 %, with a cumulative variability of 89.36 % for leaf and 89.78 % for root characters. These 39 genotypes can be classified into 3 classes. Factor analysis revealed that the main plant habit characteristics in the first group were ground cover, plant type, twining and internode vine length and tip pubescence. The general leaf outline, the form of the leaf lobe, the number of leaf lobes and the shape of the central leaf lobe were the second groups. In the third group, the primary and secondary colours of the skin, as well as the flesh, were two of the storage root's major characteristics. Genotypes with these characteristics can be helpful in determining the appropriate requirements and goals for sweet potato enhancement in breeding strategies. It can also be used to document sweet potato germplasm for passport purposes.
 HIGHLIGHTS
 
 The phenotypic diversity for important morpho-agronomic traits, which are not known, typically shows important traits of interest to plant breeders
 The PCA was used to evaluate the morphological traits that differentiated among the sweet potato genotypes
 The findings provide information for researchers, especially breeders, to use in improving sweet potato genetics by defining traits that can be suggested for improving specific traits such as yield and other agronomic traits that contributed to yield
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