Morphological diversity of local sorghum cultivars (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) from Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Sorghum is potential to develop on marginal lands in Indonesia, including Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta, despite very limited information on sorghum diversity in this area. This study aimed to describe morphological variation and assess the value of genetic diversity based on morphological characteristics of local sorghum cultivars in Gunungkidul compared with new superior varieties. Exploration and sampling were conducted in Wareng Village, Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta. Observations of morphological characters were made based on sorghum descriptors. Similarity of morphological characters was analyzed using Simple Matching (SM) coefficient, and dendrograms were made using Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Average (UPGMA) method. Results showed three local sorghum accessions in Gunungkidul with variations in 44 morphological characters. Genotypes S1 (Bioguma) with S4 (Samurai) and S3 (Plonco) with S4 (Samurai) had highest SMC coefficient (0.82), indicating that both genotypes were similar in 82 of their attributes. Whereas, genotypes S6 and V3 had lowest SMC coefficient (0.36), indicating that both genotypes were similar in 36 of their attributes, while dendrogram results showed two major groupings based on vegetative and generative characters observed. This study provides the first complete information on sorghum diversity in Gunungkidul, useful to be basic information for future sorghum development in this area. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.