Agromorphological variability of hoary basil germplasm (Ocimum americanum L.) from Burkina Faso

Ocimum americanum L., known as hoary basil, is an important wild herbaceous plant of Lamiaceae. In addition to being used as food and medicine, O. americanum has significant potential for agricultural purposes, particularly in seed conservation. In the current context of climate change and the rapid degradation of the environment, wild species are endangered. Understanding the level and organization of agromorphological variability of these species is a key step toward sustainable management of their genetic resources. This study was carried out to assess the agromorphological variability of O. americanum. Seventy-nine accessions of hoary basil from Burkina Faso were characterized based on 14 quantitative traits and 12 qualitative traits. The experimental design consisted of Fisher's blocks with three replications. Only three qualitative traits revealed variability within the whole collection with a low Shannon diversity value of 0.29 for each trait. Therefore, all the quantitative traits revealed variability within the accessions of O. americanum. Cluster analysis led to four groups of accessions based on leaf and stem size, and plant cycle. The first group was identified to be more interesting than the other three groups regarding its agronomical potentialities. The findings of this study may be valuable for the development of descriptors and breeding programs.