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Morphological variability of ‘bush banana’ (Uvaria chamae) and its environmental determinants in Benin, West Africa

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Abstract

Uvaria chamae is an edible wild fruit of great importance as a resource in West Africa. However, it is threatened in its natural habitats in Benin, and no specific measures are currently implemented to ensure its sustainable management. To provide information needed for developing such measures, this study (i) described the morphological variability of U. chamae; (ii) assessed the influence of environmental variables on these morphological traits; and (iii) characterized its morphological types along the environmental gradients in Benin. Data on morphological traits were collected on shrubs, leaves, fruits, and seeds of 210 individuals from seven phytodistricts of the Guineo-Congolian and Sudano-Guinean biogeographical zones of Benin where this species occurs. Descriptive statistics, linear mixed effect model, redundancy analysis, principal components analysis, and hierarchical clustering were used to describe the morphological variability of U. chamae and its environmental determinants. Results showed that morphological traits varied significantly at the 25% threshold across biogeographical zones phytodistricts. Localities within phytodistricts (29–98%) followed by biogeographical zone (0.8–65%) were the greatest source of variability for most of the morphological traits. Environmental variables namely isothermality, mean temperature of warmest quarter, precipitation of wettest month, rainfall of driest quarter, and land cover together explained 52.20% of the variation in U. chamae morphological traits. Hierarchical clustering suggested three morphological types. Morphotype 1, found in the Guineo-Congolian zone, mainly in Plateau and Oueme Valley, had the highest values of most traits (interesting for domestication). Morphotype 2, also from the Guineo-Congolian zone, especially in Coastal and Pobe phytodistricts (urban areas), had low values for most traits. Morphotype 3, which presents intermediate characteristics of the morphological traits, was found in the Sudano-Guinean zone (Bassila, Zou, and South Borgou phytodistricts). Therefore, morphotype 1, which had the highest values recorded in morphological traits, could be considered in breeding programs for the domestication of the bush banana but other morphotypes need to be conserved.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Alpha Togada, Lazard Azonglahoun, Claude Koudafoké, and Denise Hounguèvou for their assistances in data collection. Our thanks also go to Mr Akin Yanik for their guidance during data analysis.

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The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.

Confict of interest.

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare on the content of manuscript. In addition the authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interest to disclose.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire d’Ecologie Appliquée, Faculté Des Sciences Agronomiques, Université d’Abomey-Calavi, 01 BP 526, Cotonou, Bénin

    Emilienne Houévo Daï & Achille Ephrem Assogbadjo

  2. Laboratoire de Biomathématiques Et d’Estimations Forestières, Faculté Des Sciences Agronomiques, Université d’Abomey-Calavi, 04 BP 1525, Cotonou, Bénin

    Kolawolé Valère Salako

  3. Faculty of Science and Engineering, Chuo University, 1‐13‐27 Kasuga, Bunkyo‐ku, Tokyo, 112‐8551, Japan

    Stefan Hotes

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  1. Emilienne Houévo Daï
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  4. Achille Ephrem Assogbadjo
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Emilienne Houévo Daï, Kolawolé Valère Salako and Achille Ephrem Assogbadjo, field work: Emilienne Houévo Daï; formal analysis: Emilienne Houévo Daï and Kolawolé Valère Salako; methodology: Emilienne Houévo Daï, Kolawolé Valère Salako, Stefan Hotes and Achille Ephrem Assogbadjo; writing original draft: Emilienne Houévo Daï and Kolawolé Valère Salako; writing review and editing: Stefan Hotes and Achille Ephrem Assogbadjo. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Emilienne Houévo Daï.

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Daï, E.H., Salako, K.V., Hotes, S. et al. Morphological variability of ‘bush banana’ (Uvaria chamae) and its environmental determinants in Benin, West Africa. Genet Resour Crop Evol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-024-01926-3

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