Morphological Diversity within Pterocarpus erinaceus Poir. (Fabaceae), an Overexploited Species in the Savannahs of Côte d’Ivoire

Pterocarpus erinaceus is a high socio-economic tree of African savannahs. It is overexploited due to technological qualities of its wood, forage value and medicinal uses. The main objective of this study is the assessment of the morphological variability within this species in Cote d’Ivoire, in sight of rational management. Fourteen morphological traits were used to appraise the variability within 144 trees in production from six sites (Yalo, Moyenne Marahoue, Kahanso, Kouassi-Ndawa, Ouarigue and Teguirdouo). The results indicate that the variability reaches 6.60 for the height of the fruit and 45.99 for the weight of the fruit. The results reveal also that there are three morphological groups of P. erinaceus in Cote d’Ivoire. Of the four traits that revealed a distinction among the three morphotypes, only the width of leaves and the number of leaflets enabled their complete distinction. Trees of group 1 have long leaves with a high number of leaflets and large fruits. Trees of group 2 have small leaves with a reduced number of leaflets and large fruits. Then trees of group 3 have intermediate value of width of leaves and number of leaflet and small fruits. The three morphological groups could be useful for varietal selection of P. erinaceus in Cote d’Ivoire.