Diversidad morfológica en colectas de chile guajillo (Capsicum annuum L.) del centro-norte de México

in order to characterize morphologically 32 accessions of guajillo chili pepper (capsicum annuum l.) from the states of zacatecas and durango, mexico, an experiment was established in chapingo, mexico, under an experimental design of randomized complete block with three replications. the experimental unit consisted of one row 4 m long and 90 cm wide, with distance of 40 cm between plants. the crop was managed in padded black with silver colored plastic and a fertigation system. quantitative and qualitative characters were evaluated based on the descriptor guide for capsicum of ipgri and analyzed by principal components (pc) and hierarchical clusters (hc). the first three pc explained 58 % of the total quantitative variation among the accessions; the largest contribution to this variation was the characteristics associated with leaf morphology and flower structure (length and width of mature leaf, petiole length, corolla length and corolla width), fruiting days and number of fruits per plant, in addition to phenological variables. through the hc, five groups were formed in the dendrogram of quantitative variables. with regard to qualitative variables, three pc explained 76 % of the variation between accessions; branch density and leaf, tillering, shape of the corolla, fruit color and termination of the fruit tip contributed more to explaining the variation detected among accessions; the hc formed 8 groups. the results indicate that sufficient morphological diversity exists in guajillo chilli to be useful in starting a breeding program.