MORPHOLOGICAL AND AGROBIOLOGICAL STUDY ON LOCAL GERMPLASM OF COMMON BEANS (PHASEOLUS VULGARIS L.) AND COWPEA (V.

UNGUICULATA L.)
T. Stoilova 1 , M. Berova 2 1 Institute for Plant Genetic Resources, 4122 Sadovo 2 Agricultural University, Plovdiv Correspondence to: Tzvetelina Stoilova E-mail: tz_st@abv.bg

ABSTRACT
Among major food legumes the common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is the third most important worldwide, superseded only by soyabean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] and peanut (Arachis hypogea L.). Among the pulses (annual leguminous food crops that are harvested for dry seeds) the common bean is by far the most important. Common bean landraces are an important component of the Bulgarian small scale farmers. The bean phenotypic and genetic diversity is large, as in the all the world and in our country too. There are a lot of cultivated forms called landraces often are highly variable in appearance and usually have local names. They have particular properties or characteristics (early or late maturing) a reputation for adaptation to local climatic conditions. Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) is an ancient crop, little known in Bulgaria. Although, in South-East and South-West part of the country were collected local forms still cultivated at that conditions. Cowpea is the most important food legume crop for people of those regions. The general purpose of this study was to compare morphological and agrobiological traits of 15 accessions of dry beans and 3 accessions of cowpea with local origin, growing in the same conditions. The study was performed in the experimental field of the Institute of Plant Genetic Resources in Sadovo, during the period 2006-2008. The studied accessions of beans showed high degree of variation of some quantitative traits: plant height, number of node of main stem, number of seeds/plant and weight of seeds/plant. Cowpea accessions showed differences between duration of vegetation cycle, number of pods and seeds/plant, resulting to the yield potential, which is more stable in that dry conditions. Keywords: beans, characterization cowpea, landraces, morphological who maintain them (6, 7). Cowpea is also grain legume crop which is grown in the South parts of the country (Svilengrad and Petrich regions) and isnt known in the North part of Bulgaria. Cowpea is interested with more drought tolerance comparing with common beans (2, 3). The aim of our study was to investigate the main morphological characters of common beans and cowpea, their variation and correlation coefficients in other to improve their utilization in practice and for breeding program.

Introduction
The common beans (Ph. vulgaris L.) collection is one of the biggest of grain legumes at IPGR. It is included at about 1800 accessions and is represented mainly from Ph. vulgaris and Ph. coccineus sp. (8). The collection includes local old varieties and populations, landraces and introduced accessions from abroad. Recently we pay attention to local material (landraces) which still grown in gardens to collect and conserve them. They are well adapted to agroclimatic conditions and grains are with high quality and very tasty. Thats why we try to collect, characterize and conserve them, because of the risk of extinction in rural area with old people,
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Materials and methods

The common beans (Ph. vulgaris L.) and cowpea (V. unguiculata L.) accessions were grown in IPGR (Sadovo) during period 2006-2008. The experimental field was in a
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plot of 2 m length with two rows for each accession in two replications. In each genotype, 5 plants per replication were randomly chosen for biometric measurements. Observations were made in 18 characteristics: days to flowering from sowing date, flowering duration, days to maturity from sowing date, plant height, biological yield, height of the 1st pod, weight of plant without pods, number of pods per plant, weight of pods per plant, pod length, pod width, number of seed per pod, number of seeds/plant, weight of seeds/plant, seed length, seed width, weight of 100 seeds. All observations were done follow the International Phaseolus Descriptor (4) and Cowpea Descriptor (5).

Results and Discussion

All accessions of common beans have vegetation period between 64 and 86 days (Table 1). The earliest accessions with shortest period to flowering stage were: cat. 91E309 with 27 days and cat. 97E003 with 28 days. The first one has duration of vegetation cycle 75 days and the second 64 days to maturity. One of the most important traits for grain legumes is their earliness, to reach flowering and maturity cycle for a short period, in this case they will avoid unfavorable high temperatures and low air humidity during flowering and podding stages (1). TABLE 1.

Qualitative traits observed on 15 local accessions of Phaseolus vulgaris L. characteristics Days to flowering Duration of Flowering Days to maturity Plant height Biological Yield Height of the 1st pod Weight of plant without pods Number of pod/plant Weight of pods/plant Pod length Pod width Number of seed/pod Number of seed/plant Weight of seed/plant Seed length Seed width Weight of 100 seeds Min. 27 20 64 30 9,1 5,5 4,4 4,4 5,1 7,4 0,8 2,8 20,1 2,8 1,2 0,7 26,8 Max. 35 38 86 42 36,4 9,6 14,6 14,6 20,1 10,6 1,09 4,8 44,6 8,7 1,6 0,8 44,4 Mean 32 30 78 34 18,8 7,4 8,8 8,5 9,5 8,7 1,04 3,4 24,1 6,3 1,4 0,77 38,3 SD 2,7 30,1 27,2 3,4 48 2,2 9,9 11,9 17 0,9 0,02 0,5 49,9 8,2 0,01 0 20,1 Dissemi nation 8,1 5,3 5 12,4 6,7 1,4 3,3 3,3 4 0,9 0,12 0,7 9,6 2,7 0,1 0,06 4,3 CV(%) 8,6 6,4 6,5 10 35,5 19,4 37,4 39,4 42 10,6 11,7 21 44,2 40,1 7,08 7,3 11,3 SE 0,8 1,6 1,6 1,08 2,12 0,45 0,96 1,06 1,2 0,3 0,04 0,23 2,3 0,7 0,03 0,02 1,3

All studied accessions are from 1st type of growth with plant height between 30 and 42cm with mean value 34cm, which type is most appropriate for environments in this region, Central South Bulgaria. There is a big difference among accessions with number and weight of pods per plant, number and weight of seeds per plant. These characters are with the biggest value of CV%, which means these traits are the most variable. The accessions with biggest number of pods and seeds per plant are with cat. 93E028, 95E005 and 93E012. These accessions are with medium vegetation period between 75 and 82 days to maturity (Table 1).
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The most constant characters with small differences among them are: pod- length and width and seed-length and width. These characters show low value of CV% between 7,3 and 11,7%. The size of the grain is very important for consumers, thats why one of the breeding direction is to select plants with bigger seeds and in the same time with good technological traits. Among all studied accessions the biggest seeds belong to cat. 91E292, 91E293 and 91E302 with 100seeds weight 417, 459 and 470,3g, accordingly. There was considerable variation for all characters studied on V. unguiculata L. accessions, except of pod and seed
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length and width and phonological observations (Table 2). The earliest flowering plants need 54 days, different from others entered to the first phase later. The duration of maturity cycle is at about 82 days. The growth habit of these three accessions with local origin is semierect type. The qualitative traits from Table 1 and Table 2 shows the main differences between these two grain legume crops, Phaseolus vulgaris L and V. unguiculata L. Comparing first character, days to flowering stage for common beans is 32 days and for the second crop 54,6 days. Number of pods and

seeds per plant are much more for V. unguiculata L. than for Phaseolus vulgaris L with mean value 173,7 seeds per plant across the 24,1 for common beans. V. unguiculata L. yielded much better under environments of Central South Bulgaria. The highest value was recorded on the yield components number of pods and number of seeds for V. unguiculata L. The Vigna has smaller size of seeds-22,5g than common beans -38,3g, 100 seeds weight.

TABLE 2. Qualitative traits observed on 15 local accessions of V. unguiculata L. characteristics Days to flowering Duration of Flowering Days to maturity Plant height (cm) Biological Yield (g) Height of the 1st pod (cm) Weight of plant without pods (g) Number of pods/plant Weight of pods/plant(g) Pod length Pod width(cm) Number of seed/pod Number of seed/plant Weight of seed/plant(g) Seed length Seed width Weight of 100 seeds (g) Min. 54 20 80 63 57,5 21,4 24,9 16,6 31,9 15,2 0,8 10,3 115 25,7 0,9 0,6 15,5 Max. 56 23 85 92,1 104,3 23,3 46,9 35,5 57,4 17 0,9 11,2 229,5 42,1 1 0,7 22,5 Mean 54,6 21,3 82,6 78,7 73,8 22,1 33,2 24,9 40,6 15,8 0,84 10,7 173,7 31,5 0,97 0,65 19,2 SD 0,3 2,3 12,3 34,2 68,9 1 72,8 62,8 71,7 0,9 0 0,2 328 83,5 0 0 12,4 Dissemi nation 0,5 1,25 2,9 20,09 21,6 0,8 9,7 7,8 11,9 0,8 0,04 0,4 46,7 7,4 0,05 0,04 2,8 CV(%) 0,9 5,8 3,5 20,3 29,2 3,7 29,4 31,5 29,8 5,08 5,1 3,6 26,9 23,6 4,8 6,2 14,9 SE 0,3 0,7 1,7 7,03 12,5 0,5 5,6 4,5 6,8 0,5 0,02 0,2 27 4,3 0,03 0,02 1,7

Conclusions
According to the field evaluation of 15 accessions of Phaseolus vulgaris L and three accessions of V. unguiculata L. with local origin were established accessions with higher yielding, early maturing plants, producting bigger seeds and in the same time more suitable crop between Phaseolus vulgaris L. and Vigna unguiculata L. for growing under environments of Central South Bulgaria. Plants of Ph. Vulgaris L. with early maturation produced more pods and seeds per plants. Plants belong to V. unguiculata L. yielded better under agroclimatic conditions
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in Sadovo, characterized with high temperatures and low air humidity. The number of pods and seeds per plant for V. unguiculata L. are 24,9 and 173,7 mean value, comparing with Ph. vulgaris L. with 8,5 and 24,1. The present study, performed during the last two years will contribute to increase the interest of researchers and farmers in this crop.

REFERENCES
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1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Angelova et al. (2008) IVth Balkan Symposium on Vegetables and Potatoes, 9-12 IX, Plovdiv Berova et al. (2001) Bean Improvement Cooperative 44:47 48 Berova et al. (2004) Journal of Mountain Agriculture on the Balkans 7(6):720-727 International Board for Plant Genetic Resources Phaseolus Descriptors, Rome, IBPGR, 1982 International Board for Plant Genetic Resources Cowpea Descriptors, Rome, IBPGR, 1983

6. 7. 8.

Krasteva et al. (2008) Jubilee Scientific Session, Union of Scientist in Bulgaria-Plovdiv, 4-5 XI (in press) Stoilova et al. (2000) Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science 6:21-28 Stoilova, Tz. (2007) International Research Conference-125 Years Agricultural Research in Sadovo, Plovdiv, 13-14 VI (in press)

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