Research Article published by Taylor & Francis Group
Jute mallow is a nutritious leafy vegetable used by many people in Africa. The purpose of this
study was to select accessions with high leaf yield and seed yield. We investigated seven
agronomic traits that are related to leaf yield and seed yield and how they correlate with each
other. The results indicated significant differences among the accessions in all traits. Leaf
fresh weight ranged from 18.3 to 121.3 g/plant in accessions TOT 6747 and TOT 8532,
respectively. The highest variability between the accessions was also observed in seed
yield. It ranged from 1.0 g/plant in accession TOT 7980 to 35.5 g/plant in TOT 7866. Eight
other accessions had a seed yield of 1.0 g/plant. Significant and positive correlations were
observed between leaf fresh weight and leaf dry weight (r = 0.84), leaf area (r = 0.33), and
number of leaves (r = 0.40). A significant correlation was observed in seed yield and weight of
pods per plant (r = 0.83). The evaluation of these agronomic traits for leaf and seed yield in
this germplasm has revealed useful information for breeders in their efforts to improve the
yield as well as selection of accessions with good agronomic traits.