Digital Imaging-Assisted Characterization of Plants’ MorphologicalFeatures for the Identification of Robusta Coffee Clones

Abstract

Digital imaging can be a helpful tool to support the identification of Robusta coffee for breeding programs. This study aimed to identify Robusta coffee clones through morphological characterization assisted by digital image analysis. Five Robusta clones namely BP 308, BP 409, BP 534, BP 936, and BP 939, were evaluated. The trial was done using a completely randomized design with a single factor, namely a clone, with three replications. The results showed that the factor (Robusta
coffee clones) had a significant effect on all quantitative characters except for the number of clusters per branch, leaf length, and fruit width. Significant differences were also shown in digital image characters, namely red and green values in the
young and adult leaf phases. There was a distinct separation based on the clustering analysis results. The first group consisted of BP 939, and the second group consisted of BP 308, BP 409, BP 936, and BP 534. The second group had two subgroups with a dissimilarity distance of 30%. Subgroup 1 consisted of BP 308, while Subgroup 2 consisted of BP 409, BP 936, and BP 534