Morphological Characterization and Recognition of New Traits of Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill]

Distinctness, Uniformity, and Stability (DUS) characterization of ninety recently evolved soybean genotypes including three national checks were carried out at JNKVV, Jabalpur, during Kharif 2021. Sixteen DUS traits were evaluated as described by National DUS test guidelines. Observations were made on Hypocotyl Pigmentation, Growth type, Growth habitat, Leaf shape, Leaf size, Leaf colour, Flower colour, Flower colour, Pod hairiness, Pod pub colour, Pod intensity of brown colour, Seed size, Seed shape, Seed coat colour, Hilum colour, Seed coat Lustre and Colour of funicle at various phases. It revealed that there was a lot of variation in the soybean genotypes for DUS characters. Frequency distribution of data exhibited that presence of Hypocotyl: anthocyanin pigmentation (65.55 %), Semi-Determinate Growth type (75.55 %), Semi-erect Growth habitat (90.0 %), Pointed Ovate Leaf shape (83.33 %), Pod hairiness pubescent (84.44%), Seed size medium (64.44%), Seed coat colour yellow (84.44%), Seed coat Lustre intermediate (77.77%) and Colour of funicle brown (100%) were dominating traits in present set of genotypes. This soybean germplasm has a wide range of features and morphological variation, which may assist a breeder in further improvement of soybean. This will be extremely helpful in identifying, conserving and developing ideal plant type on the basis of distinguishing morphological characters.