Genetic Divergence in Ethiopian Coriander (Coriandrum sativum l.)Accessions

Although Ethiopia is a center of diversity for many crops including Coriander little is known on the genetic divergence of this crop due to its negligence in the research program of the country in the past. The genetic divergence of 25 land races was assessed using principal component and cluster analysis based on 8 characters. The accessions were grouped into five clusters. Cluster I was the largest consisting 19 accessions. High inter cluster distance (47.42) was observed between cluster IV, cluster II and IV (47.33) and cluster I and IV (41.47) indicating the presence of substantial genetic diversity in genetic makeup of the accessions included in these clusters. Accessions 16 and 8 having positive values for principal component 1 and 2 were of considerable breeding interest because of their good combination for the studied yield related traits.