EVALUATING SCIENTIFIC NAMES, DISTRIBUTION, AND RECORD TYPES OF ETHIOPIAN PEA BASED ON GLOBAL DATASETS USING CLASSIFICATION REGRESSION TREE ANALYSES

Abstract

Biodiversity conservation is dependent on correct taxonomic cataloguing and searchable databases structuring. Ethiopian pea has few seed accessions and has been excluded from many Pisum studies; its true taxonomic status is still dubious. This necessitates evaluating the crop’s scientific names, distribution and record types on the global datasets. A total of 367 Ethiopian pea collections described with four scientific names, from 19 global datasets were used. The population included unknown record types, living and preserved specimens, and cultivated landraces. Classification and Regression Tree analysis was used as an evaluation tool. Names of the taxon were analysed as 271 Pisum abyssinicum A. Braun, 88 Pisum sativum subsp. abyssinicum (A. Braun) Govorov, 7 Pisum sativum var. abyssinicum A. Braun, and 1 Pisum abyssinicum A. Braun var. vavilovianum Gov. Most of them (305) were unknown, 37 preserved specimens, 19 living specimens, and 6 cultivated record types. Of these, 184 unknown, 22 preserved specimens, 12 living specimens, and 6 cultivated types are collected from Ethiopia. The preserved and living specimens were subspecies types. There is an urgent need to conserve the crop via sufficient documentation at current situation.