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Abstract
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Spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) is a nutritious leafy crop worldwide, and the germplasm diversity may influence its performance and application in generating new adaptable cultivars. In this study, some morphological characters were used to assess the genetic variation of 81 local landraces across two years. According to the coefficient of variation, leaf size, dry weight of shoots, number of lateral branches, dry weight of roots, and dry weight of shoots revealed more variations in both years. Based on cluster analysis, spinach landraces were divided into six clusters in both years by verification of the cutoff border via four multivariate ANOVA statistics. Two groups (groups 1 and 6) of the spinach landraces in the first year, along with group 5, had the highest leaf yield performance, while these three clusters (clusters 1, 5, and 6) indicated the highest leaf yield performance in the second year. A comparison of dendrograms from both years indicated that 15 spinach landraces were grouped in the same clusters across the experimental years and did not show any remarkable genotype-by-environment interaction. The current spinach germplasm indicates a good resource of diverse characters that should be managed for future genetic improvement projects aimed at obtaining new cultivars. Finally, the most favorable 15 landraces performed desirably and are recommended for farmers due to their yield performance.
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