Morphological diversity of maize landraces in the Grijalva region of the state of Tabasco, Mexico

The objective of this research was to evaluate the diversity of maize landraces, which are cultivated in Grijalva region of the state of Tabasco, Mexico. The evaluation was conducted during the year 2011. Thirty eight maize landraces from nine municipalities of the Grijalva region were evaluated. Eighteen morphological traits were recorded to assess the diversity among maize landraces. The principal component analysis defined that the most influential traits to explain the observed variation were: ear height, ear biomass, grain biomass in ear and grain number per ear. The graphic dispersion and population classification or clusters were determined by using the average linkage method and the correlation coefficient (rc) component criteria. Results showed five clusters with a 0.96 rc distance based on the populations typical phenotypic variability. A progressive and continuous differentiation of traits within each major group was detected. It is concluded that there is a wide variation among local maize landraces in Grijalva region of the state of Tabasco.