Abstract
Species of Capsicum L. are closely related plants whose taxonomic status has remained controversial among different taxonomists. This study was designed to examine the taxonomic status of the species of Capsicum in Nigeria in order to establish the genetic variation between the species for the purpose of identification, as well as review the infrageneric classification (INC) of the members of the genus. Germplasm collection of the seeds of five cultivars of Capsicum were regenerated and nurtured to fruiting. Variations in their vegetative and reproductive morphology were macroscopically evaluated in replicates of 30 individuals per cultivar for each character, which equals 150 samples altogether. The cultivars of each species was hierarchically clustered as operational taxonomic units (OTUs) using Ward’s method with squared Euclidean distance. Artificial key was also constructed for the identification of the species in the genus. The twenty-three (23) morphological characters adopted gave useful insights into the INC of the species and were sufficiently diagnostic of the species as evidenced by the artificial key. Through this study, some light has been shed on the delimitation of species and varieties of the Nigerian Capsicum.
Highlights
The genus Capsicum in Nigeria has not been thoroughly revised, classified and identified especially using morphological characters
No satisfactory revision of the morphology of the Nigerian genera of Capsicum is available. Apart from this challenge, it has been observed that some authors have misrepresented some Nigerian species of Capsicum due to lack of proper identification
Mill., S. macrocarpon Linn., Solanum torvum Sw., Solanum nigrum Linn. an d Nicot-iana tabacum Linn. based on the findings, these authors suggested that lycopersicum which had earlier been regarded as a species of Solanum, should be placed in a separate genus
Summary
The genus Capsicum in Nigeria has not been thoroughly revised, classified and identified especially using morphological characters. There is a dearth of information on the exact number of Capsicum species and varieties found in the country. No satisfactory revision of the morphology of the Nigerian genera of Capsicum is available. Apart from this challenge, it has been observed that some authors have misrepresented some Nigerian species of Capsicum due to lack of proper identification. The boundaries between some of the species are still ill-defined, with many of the taxa proving to possess not more than slight morphological variations from those already described. The disagreements among taxonomists on Capsicum taxonomy include species boundaries and importance of some morphological characters over others. It is agreeable that when classification is confused, so is nomenclature and literally any information about such taxa is unspecific and definitely, less useful
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