Agro-morphological Characterization of Korean, Chinese, and Japanese Adzuki Bean (Vigna angularis (Willd.) Ohwi & Ohashi) Genotypes

Adzuki beans have gained popularity in recent years due to their health benefits. Breeding of Adzuki beans is less favorable than with other legumes due to low genetic diversity. This study aimed to evaluate the genetic diversity of 252 adzuki bean germplasms from China, Japan, and Korea using 18 agro-morphological parameters and comparing their performance to three prominent Korean cultivars: Geomguseul, Arari, and Chungjupat. Leaf shape, pod color, and seed coat color were among the qualitative traits that showed wide variations. The quantitative variables also showed wide variations among adzuki bean germplasms. Although there was no significant difference (p < 0.05), the average rate of germination declined in the order of Korean (91.44%) > Chinese (91.31%) > Japanese (87.47%) adzuki beans. Chinese adzuki beans needed fewer days to flower (DF, 58.22 days) and days to mature (DM, 107.13 days), which varied significantly compared to the Korean and Japanese adzuki beans (p < 0.05). The average number of pods per plant (PPP) and one-hundred seeds weight (HSW) were higher in Japanese adzuki beans compared to the Korean and Chinese adzuki beans although the variation of each was not significant. Almost 29.76% of the accessions had early-blooming flowers, 3.97% were premature, 21.43% produced more PPP, and 3.97% yielded more SPP compared to control cultivars. Results of hierarchical cluster and principal component analyses revealed three clusters with significant variation in all quantitative variables except for RG (p < 0.05). The key factors in multivariate analyses were DF, DM, and HSW. Our study investigated the genetic diversity of adzuki bean accessions and identified ten early maturing and ten high PPP-yielding accessions. Our findings would help farmers and breeders to select the top-performing accessions that can provide them with various options.