Comparison of Old and Local Varieties Phaseolus vulgaris L. in the Variability of Some Morphological Characters of Seeds

Abstract

Many growers and family farmers in the countryside still conserved original and culinary important old and local crop varieties. These varieties are the basis of the food security of the rural population. Under the conditions of Slovakia, the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) has always been an important legume crop, evidenced by the hundreds of old and local varieties still grown nowadays. The research focused on determining the economic value of a selected collection of old and local varieties of common beans widespread in Slovakia for selected morphological characters of seeds for their classification, cataloguing, and long-term preservation. We determined morphometric parameters of seeds for all specimens the range for the length of seeds 12.08–17.66 mm (V% of 4.65–12.21), width of seeds 7.19–10.19 mm (V% of 3.88–8.62), thickness of seeds 5.22–7.85 mm (V% of 4.94–9.33), length of hilum 2.13–2.63 mm (V% of 5.51–19.00), width of hilum 0.89–1.55 mm (V% of 7.78–29.35), weight of 50 seeds 19.73–38.74 (V% of 21.71), length/width shape index 1.39–2.03 (V% 4.30–16.20), width/thickness shape index 1.15–1.80 (V% 4.36–13.46). The obtained results document the importance of preserving evaluated old and local varieties in gene banks and as on farm production for our cultural heritage and biological genetic diversity.