Abstract:
Thirty culinary varieties of banana grown at the Banana Research Station,
Kannara, Kerala were observed for 13 different morphological characters and the
data were subjected to analysis of variance. Significant differences were recorded
among all the varieties with regard to different morphological characters.
By using D2 analysis the varieties were grouped into 12 clusters which
were homogeneous within and heterogeneous between. The same clustering pattern
was obtained in the canonical analysis except for the variety 'Ashmonthan'. This
variety was in the first cluster through canonical analysis. The characters which
were contributing maximum towards divergence were bunch weight and hand
weight. The characters which were contributing minimum towards divergence
were girth and height. The same results were obtained through both the methods.
