Morphological characterizaton of papaya accessions in Jember through mul tvariate analysis Riza Yuli Rusdiana*, Halimatus Sa’diyah, Vega Kartka Sari, Kacung Hariyono, and Sri Hartatk This study aimed to select the most informative morphological descriptors in characterizing and distinguishing papaya accessions in Jember. The multivariate analysis was used to i) determine the closeness between the papaya accessions collected based on morphology descriptors and ii) define a list of sufficient minimum descriptors to distinguish papaya accessions in Jember. Five quantitative and fifteen qualitatve descriptors were used in evaluatng 23 accessions. The data collected through quantitative descriptors were analyzed by the means of PCAbiplot analysis and qualitatve descriptors were analyzed using entropy level. Statstcal analysis was carried out by R studio software using two packages, i.e. biotools and factoextra packages. Based on the research results, the first two principal components of the PCAbiplot representaton of 23 accessions were able to evaluate 67.18% of the total variability. The accessions located in KALSUK, GUMPUR 1, and GUMPUR 2 had similarites in tree diameter and width of mature leaf characters, while KALPLA, MUMSUM 1, LEDSLA, MUMLEN 1, SUMRO 2, and SUMJAM accessions shared similarites in the length of mature leaf, petiole, and peduncle. The minimum descriptors that could be used to characterize papaya plant accessions in Jember were two quantitative descriptors (tree diameter and length of mature leaf) and three qualitatve descriptors (general shape of mature leaf teeth, height to first fruit, and stem color). The combinaton of quanttatvequalitatve descriptors allowed the simple and rapid characterizaton of papaya accession. In addition, it could reduce costs and labor without losing informaton in the characterizaton of papaya plants. INTRODUCTION Papaya (Carica papaya L.) is a herbaceous fruit plant from the family of Caricaceae. Papaya is classified as a nonseasonal plant and could bear fruit at any tme. Papaya fruit is widely popular due to its sweet taste and nutrients and vitamins content (Febjislami et al., 2018). Papaya has the potental to be developed as a fresh fruit as well as an industrial raw material. Papaya fruit is currently widely processed into various kinds of food products with high economic value. Based on data from the Agriculture Office of Jember in Komarayant (2017), papaya in Jember is local fruit. Local fruit plants are fruit plants grown in Indonesia and planted by Indonesian people. By region, East Java was the largest papaya producer in Indonesia, reaching 268,375 tons in 2020. Meanwhile, Jember is the largest supplier of papaya in East Java, which could be seen based on the number of papaya producton among areas. Jember regency in 2021 informed that papaya production was 2,155,682 kw (2019) and 950,565 kw (2020) spread across several regions in Jember (BPS, 2021). These data showed that papaya is the important commodity in Jember. The Callina variety is widely traded in Jember, indicatng that most farmers grow this variety which Received : 14 th December 2022 Revised : 31 st January 2023 Accepted: 6 th April 2023 ISSN 01264214 (print) ISSN 25277162 (online) Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Jember Jl. Kalimantan 37, Jember, East Java, Indonesia 68121 *Corresponding author: rizayr@unej.ac.id Ilmu Pertanian (Agricultural Science) htp://journal.ugm.ac.id/jip Vol. 8 No. 1 April, 2023: 11–20 | DOI: doi.org/10.22146/ipas.80175 Keywords: PCAbiplot analysis, papaya, variability, variable selecton Abstract Artcle Info How to cite: Rusdiana, R.Y., Sa’diyah, H., Sari, V.K., Hariyono, K., and Harta tk, S. (2023). Morphological characteriza ton of papaya accessions in Jember through mul tvariate analysis. Ilmu Pertanian (Agricultural Science) , 8(1), pp. 11–20.