Abstract
The diversity in baobab was studied on 75 trees located at Adaklu District and Ho and Hohoe Municipalities of Ghana. Fourteen morphological traits were used in the characterisation based on Bioversity descriptors for baobab. Genstat edition 12 was used to analyse the diversity as well as germination and growth data. Group average hierarchical clustering with Jaccard similarity coefficient discriminated among most of the baobab trees. Clustering was not based on location although few trees that were not discriminated were from the same communities. The clustering can be used in selecting trees for further studies and domestication. Germination tests were conducted with baobab seeds soaked or boiled in water or treated with 95% sulphuric acid. Only the sulphuric acid treated seeds had germination significantly higher than the control. More studies should be done to find easier way of breaking seed dormancy of baobab. There were significant differences in 100-seed weight, seed length and thickness among seeds from three different trees. However, there were no significant difference in seed width of the same sample. Seed size traits should be considered in selecting baobab for domestication because of the high variability revealed. Observation on seedling growth in terms of number of leaves, stem girth, and plant height suggest slow growth of the plant. Information from this research is valuable for further work on domestication of baobab.
Highlights
Baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) is an ancient African tree with important uses across the continent (Rashford 2015)
Materials and Methods Seventy-five baobab trees were randomly selected from Adaklu District and Ho and Hohoe Municipalities and characterised with 14 morphological traits from bioversity descriptors for baobab (Kehlenbeck et al, 2015)
Seeds were immersed in boiling water for two or five seconds and another immersed in concentrated sulphuric acid for nine hours
Summary
Baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) is an ancient African tree with important uses across the continent (Rashford 2015). Because of its status, there is a growing interest to domesticate it (Jensen et al, 2011) It is considered one of the most important underutilised crops for domestication (Gebauer et al, 2016). The tree grows naturally throughout sub-Saharan Africa with higher presence in the savannahs and drier environments (Chadare et al, 2008). As it originates from Africa, diversity abounds in baobab within the continent. The Volta Region of Ghana is a typical location where baobab trees are abundant and can be exploited for domestication
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