Phenotypic Diversity of Shea(Vitellaria Paradoxa C. F. Gaertn.) Populations across Four Agro-Ecological Zones of Cameroon

Vitellaria paradoxa commonly called shea is an important agro forestry and fruit-bearing species present in four agro-ecological zones of Cameroon. The goal of this work was the morphological characterization of certain populations of V. paradoxa which will serve as a necessary step for a subsequent genetic study of the species. Morphological observations related to 20 agronomic traits, studied on 8-13 trees selected from each of the eight shea populations across four different agro-ecological zones located in four provinces of Cameroon were studied. The study showed that there was a variation between the populations, related to the traits measured on the trunk, fruit, nut, and leaf. Three shapes of the tree(ball, broom, and trained), five shapes of the fruit(round, oblong, reversed pear, ovoid, and oblong), three colors of the nut(clear brown, dark brown, and blackish brown) were identified. The principal component analysis(PCA) carried out on the quantitative characters revealed 72% of the total variance expressed on the first and second main axis. This variation was essentially explained by the traits measured on the fruits and on the nuts. The analyses showed that only the traits of the fruits and the nuts were discriminative. The shea populations studied were structured into two distinct groups using these discriminative traits.