Advances in Zoology and Botany 8(1): 20-28, 2020 http://www.hrpub.org DOI: 10.13189/azb.2020.080104 Phenotypic Diversity within Ipomoea Mauritiana Jacq. (Ksheeravidari) Germplasm Collections Lakshmi Mohan N. 1,* , SadheeshnaKumari S. 2 , Geetha S. Pillai 2 1 Department of Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Kannur University, Kerala, India 2 Crop Improvement & Biotechnology Division, Centre for Medicinal Plants Research (CMPR), India Received October 20, 2019; Revised November 26, 2019; Accepted December 4, 2019 Copyright©2020 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Abstract The morphological parameters have been widely used in the evaluation of various crops. Quantitative and qualitative characters of 18 phenotypes of Ipomoea mauritiana Jacq, collected from various locations of Kerala were studied and data were recorded. Various qualitative data collected were grouped using PAUP software and dendrogram was constructed using UPMGA. The morphological characters like vine color, plant type, root formation, root color, root shape were the same and notable variations were seen in leaf lobe number, leaf color, leaf length and breadth, petiole length, petiole color. The morphology of tubers was studied after one year of planting and the data were scored and tabulated. The phenotypic variations provide an easy way to assess the accessions and for further evaluations. The variations were most expressed in the leaf colour, vine color, petiole colour, leaf length, leaf breadth, tuber fresh weight, tuber dry weight, tuber dry recovery percentage, number of roots formed per plant. From dendogram IM-6 showed much significant morphological variation from others. Furthermore studies have to be done to confirm existence of any genetic variations amongst them by carrying out experiments using molecular techniques. Keywords Ipomoea mauritiana, Morphological Characters 1. Introduction Ipomoea mauritiana Jacq is an important medicinal plant that belongs to the Convolvulaceae family. The species is distributed throughout India in deciduous and evergreen forests and coastal tracts. It is a much branched glabrous twining perennial shrub with large tuberous roots, which are the source of Ayurvedic raw drug Ksheeravidari, a rejuvenating drug [15]. It is used in more than 50 Ayurvedic formulations. The roots are sweet, have cooling properties, and are used to increase appetite, as a galactagogue, in rejuvenative medicine, as a stimulant, carminative and tonic. The annual requirement for this raw material in the state is nearly 200 tones [14]. Overexploitation of the species for use as raw material in pharmaceutical industry exerts great pressure on the natural resources and hence results either in their non-availability in required quantities or even disappearance from the wild. Large-scale cultivation is the only practical solution for making the raw drug available to the industry. Cultivation of this species becomes un-economical due to poor yield and lack of improved lines and hence organized cultivation of I. mauritiana is now taken up in the state. Plant genetic resources are the most valuable and essential raw material in meeting the current and future needs of crop improvement programs. Morphological characterization of genetic resources is very essential for the detection of desirable traits, identification of duplicate accessions so as to save the storage space, structuring of population for conservation and simplifying selection by plant breeders [12, 8]. Diversity can be accessed by measuring the variation in the phenotypic traits. Phenotypic descriptors are useful for evaluating and identifying genetic relationships among accessions. Morphological diversity is evaluated through assessment of variation in phenotypic characters including both above and below ground traits [11]. Morphological characterization is the primary step that needs to be carried out before biochemical and molecular studies [2]. In the case of I. mauritiana there is no previous information on the genetic variability available in the germplasm. Improvement work in this species may be limited by the lack of knowledge of available genetic diversity and therefore, comprehensive information concerning locally available germplasm is of vital importance for development of improved lines. The