Morphological performances of mutant butterfly pea (Clitoria ternatea L.)

Butterfly pea (locally known as kembang telang) could be used in many functions that are valuable in the field as forage, cover crop, cut for hay, and natural dyes. This study aimed to characterize morphological performance and petal color of butterfly pea putative mutants. The research was carried out in a greenhouse of Cikeumeuh Experimental Station, ICABIOGRAD, Bogor from March to July 2020. The mutant plants were grown in completely randomized design. The results showed a relatively diversed morphology of the butterfly pea putative mutants. The plant height ranged from 51 to 270 cm, shoot diameter of 4–13 mm, early flowering appeared after 36 to 43 days, fresh weight of 18.5–109 g/plant and dry weight reached 16.1 to 95.44 g/plant. The number of seeds per pod ranged from 2 to 8 seeds, and the pod length was between 3–8 cm. The butterfly pea petal colors have been ranged from white, blue and purple. At that point, the number of branches have a correlation with plant height, while shoot diameter correlates with fresh and dry weight, and the number of pods is related to pod weight, seed number and seed weight. The butterfly pea mutant numbers 179, 182, 185, 187, 226, and 228 were selected for their good plant performance.