Abstract

                                Chilli or hot pepper (Capsicum annuumL.), native to new world tropics, is one of the most essentialvegetable and spice crop worldwide. In India, it is an indispensable spice cum vegetable in every household. In the current experiment, the elite 34 genotypes collected locally and throughout India weresubjected to Mahalnobis D2 statistics using Tocher’smethod. Results revealed that the genotypes were grouped into 6 clusters based on Mahalanobi’sD2statistics. Cluster I consisted of 9 genotypes, cluster II had 12 genotypes, cluster IV had 8 genotypes, cluster VI contained 3 genotypes and cluster III & cluster V had single genotype. Maximum inter cluster distance was found between cluster III and VI (217.467), and high cluster mean value for yield per plant was recorded in cluster II(65.92g).Pedicel length trait was found to be prominent contributorto the genetic divergence in present experimental material.

Key words : Chilli; Clusters; Mahalnobis D2Analysis and Genetic Divergence