Study of Genetic Diversity and Relationship of 100 Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) Lines Based on Morphological Characters

Cardamom ( Elettaria cardamomum ) is belong to family Zingiberaceae which the fruit is not rhizome. This plant is phenomenal in spice as called “queen of spices”. Cardamom is not only used as a food additive in cooking but also is used in traditional medicine. In Indonesia, cardamom has two types, namely Java cardamom ( Amomum compactum ) and small or true cardamom ( Elettaria cardamomum ). This study aims to determine genetic diversity and relationship between 100 cardamom lines based on their morphological characteristics. This experiment was carried out conducted at the Manoko Research Station from January 2019 to December 2019. The seeds used are 100 lines from cross-pollination of cardamom parents. Seeds are planted in a 30 cm x 30 polybag filled with soil and manure. Morphological traits parameters observed divided into two categories are a quantitative and qualitative character. Morphological quantitative traits include plant height, number of tillers, number of leaves, stem diameter, leaf length, leaf width, and leaf thickness. Whereas qualitative morphological characteristics are leaf color, leaf shape, leaf base shape, and leaf tip shape. The value of genetic diversity, which a big show by the morphology characteristics is the number of tillers, number of leaves, stem diameter, and leaf thickness where shows the coefficient variety value more than 25%. Cluster analysis created three major groups.