The morphological characterization of genotypes of kale is needed as well as the estimates of genetic divergence between them. We studied the morphological characters of kale genotypes originated from the germplasm bank of UFVJM, the genetic divergence among the genotypes and the importance of these characters in the estimates of divergence. The experiment was carried out in the Department of Horticulture of UFVJM, Diamantina, Minas Gerais state, Brazil, using the randomized complete block design with four replications and thirty genotypes, consisting of five plants. Forty-four traits were evaluated on each plant for morphological evaluations. Some genotypes showed high genetic divergence, such as the genotypes UFLA-6 and 24-UFVJM, which were the most divergent compared to the others. Most of the genotypes, however, were similar to each other. It was also observed that there are important characteristics that can be used in the estimation of divergence.
Brassica oleracea var. acephala; multivariate analysis; Mahalanobis distance; Tocher grouping
