Identification and phenetic analysis of Dioscorea spp. And Dioscorea alata L. Cultivars based on anatomical caharacters

Micromorphological and anatomical data were needed for identification and classification of Dioscorea spp. The objective of this research was to find out the specific anatomical characters of stem, leave and tuber of five species of Dioscorea. Samples were collected by survey method from Java, Borneo and Sulawesi Islands. Anatomical slides of leaves and tuber were prepared using free hand section methods (semi-permanent), and stems and leaves anatomical slides were prepared using paraffin methods. Data were analyzed descriptively to find out anatomical variation of 5 species of Dioscorea and 14 local cultivars of Dioscorea alata, cluster analysis was made to find out the phenetic similarity. Cluster analysis was conducted with UPGMA algorithm using soft ware NTSYSpc.1. The result showed that micromorphological characters of stem, leaf, and tuber can be used for interspecies identification and classification of Dioscorea, but is not significant for intraspecies classification and identification of D. alata cultivars. On D. alata green kultivar group and purplish-red cultivar group and each sub-group can not be identified and classified based on micromorphological or anatomical characters of stems, leaves and tubers. © 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.