Abstract

This study explores the phenetic similarity among 20 Hibiscus cultivars through morphological analysis of vegetative and floral parts. Each cultivar is treated as an Operational Taxonomic Unit (OTU) in a morphometric (multivariate) analysis. All characters were coded numerically, with qualitative traits represented as binary attributes. A character-taxon matrix was constructed, and cluster analysis using UPGMA was conducted with PAST 3.0. The resulting phenogram grouped cultivars based on 40 phenotypic characters, including qualitative traits like flower color and quantitative traits such as bloom size and leaf dimensions. The dendrogram, generated using complete clustering and Gower distance, reveals distinct groupings among the cultivars.