Green (59%) and purple (41%) colours were found in hypocotyl, epicotyl and leaf veins among the 50 germplasm of hyacinth bean. No pigmentation (50%), extensive pigmentation (40%), almost solid (8%) and localized to node (2%) were found on the main stem. Pale green (20%), intermediate green (68%) and dark green (12%) leaf colour intensity were observed. One main stem with none or few short lateral branches were found in 70% germplasm, followed by one main stem, few lateral branches starting from first nodes in 18% germplasm, and two or three main stems starting from first nodes were found in 12% germplasm. All the germplasm were exhibited the absent type of leaf anthocyanin, indeterminate climber and glabrous leaf pubescent. Raceme position was found within foliage (4%), intermediate (66%) and emerging from leaf canopy (30%). Upright (30%) and prostrate (70%) types of pod bearing raceme were found. White (30%) and purple (70%) flowers were found among the germplasm. Green (60%), the green pod containing purple margin (26%), purple (8%), white (4%) and yellow-green pod containing purple margin (2%) were found among the hyacinth bean germplasm. The distribution of edible pod shapes was flat (56%), elongate (42%) and elongate wavy (2%) while the curvatures of edible pods were straight (68%) and slightly curved (32%). Short (84%), long (2%) and thick beaks (14%) of edible pods were observed in the hyacinth bean germplasm. Five distinct seed colours such as black, brown, yellow-white, greyed-orange and brown with cream seeds (6 to 62%) were observed among the germplasm at the maturity stage after sun drying. The shape of dry seeds in the population was classified as ovoid (68%), flat (28%) and elongate (4%). Three seed sizes such as small, medium and large along with moderately ridged and markedly ridged were observed in the germplasm. Absent (70%) and brown spotted (30%) seed coat patterns were found. All the germplasm produced flowers and seeds during winter and only 22% of germplasm produced flowers during April-May 2015. The qualitative descriptors for individual germplasm are presented in Table 3.
Quantitative variations of 16 descriptors in hyacinth bean were observed. The highest leaf length of the terminal leaflet was exhibited in AHM-9 (12.5 cm) while the lowest 9.2 cm was observed in BD-10380. Terminal leaflet width was ranged from 8.5 cm (BD-10380) to 11.9 cm (AHM-9) with an average of 9.79 cm. The germplasm produced the first flower on 48 days (AH-34, K-4 and K-5) to 92 days (BD-10382) while the days to first edible pod stages appeared from 63 days (AH-32) to 126 days (AR-4-1). On average, days to first edible pod stage appeared at 25 days after the first flowering. Peduncle length and rachis length were ranged from 4.80 to 21.57 cm and 4.15 to 32.80 cm, respectively. Rachis length (21.15 cm) is about one and a half fold longer than peduncle length (15.82 cm). The germplasm produced 2.40 (RAI-51) to 11.45 (BD-2882) flowering nodes per rachis with an average of 8.31. The germplasm exhibited 4.0 (AHM-22/1, AHM-30) to 14.20 (BD-2916/1) pods per rachis in the population. The edible pod length was ranged from 6.67 to 15.00 cm in BD-10380 and AHM-22/11, respectively. On the contrary, pod width was ranged from 1.78 to 4.50 cm in AHM-22 and AHM-22/1, respectively. The germplasm produced pods weighing 6.16 to 24.20 g in BD-10380 and AHM-22/1, respectively. Such the lowest pod weight might be inherent characteristics of the germplasm. The germplasm produced 63 to 710 pods per plant from AHM-22/1 and RAI-51, respectively while 3.80 to 6.00 seeds per pod were obtained from BD-2906 and RAI-51, respectively. An average of 274 and 4.6, pods per plant and seeds per pod were found, respectively from the germplasm. The variation in the number of pods per plant might be due to differences in the number of inflorescence per plant, pods per raceme, flower-dropping tendency and also the inherent potential of germplasm. The germplasm exhibited 0.78 to 1.44 cm seed length from RAI-51 and AHM-22-1, respectively while 0.54 (AR-62) to 1.01 cm (BD-2888) seed width were obtained. The germplasm exhibited 26.02 g (RAI-51) to 67.52 g (AR-5) hundred seed weight with an average of 42.92 g. The maximum coefficient of variation was found in the number of pods per plant (49.38%) followed by edible pod weight (28.74%), rachis length (28.02%), number of pods per rachis (26.07%), peduncle length (25.81%),100-seed weight (25.27%), number of nodes per rachis (21.37%), edible pod length (18.13%), edible pod width (17.88%) and minimum cv was exhibited in leaflet length (cm) (6.64%). The quantitative descriptors for individual germplasm are presented in Table 4. On the basis of different qualitative and quantitative characters, the germplasm BD-2881, BD-2896, BD-2918, AHM-22-1 and AHM-110 may be selected as an elongate pod (12 to 15 cm); BD-2918/1, AHM-22/1, AHM-110, AR-4/1 and K-1 as a flat pod (3.0 to 4.5 cm); BD-2896, BD-2918, AHM-22/1, AHM-30, AHM-110 and AR-5 as maximum pod weight (12.42 to 24.20 g); BD-2882, RAI-51, IA-20, IA-21, AR-4-2 and AR-73 as the maximum number of fruits (413 to 710); AH-32, AH-34, AR-62, K-4 and K-5 as early flowering (48 to 52 days) and AH-32, AH-34, AHM-110, K-1 and K-5 as early fruiting (63 to 69 days); BD-2882, BD-2901, BD-2916/1, BD-10382 and AR-4/1 as late flowering (80 to 92 days), BD-2878, BD-2888, BD-2896, BD-2914, AR-4 and AR-5 as bold seeded (54.6 to 67.5 g per hundred seed) germplasm. The sufficient seeds are kept in conservation for future use.