MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE BANANA INDIGENOUS CULTIVAR ‘HAJI’ (MUSA X PARADISIACA) FOR GERMPLASM DEVELOPMENT IN INDONESIA

The banana cultivar ‘Haji’ (Musa x paradisiaca)' is indigenous to the Lombok Island, Indonesia. The cultivar ‘Haji’ has superior characteristics like a long shelf life, which has a great potential and contribution in the breeding enhancement. A genome group classification needs conducting to further support its breeding program. The identification of 10 accessions of cultivar ‘Haji’ found in Lombok Island progressed based on morphology and the genome group classification. The banana cultivar ‘Haji’ accessions have four defining morphological characters, i.e., a predominant underlying color of the pseudostem being pink until red, a waxy appearance of the leaf's lower surface, a yellow-green-pink midrib ventral surface, and a horizontal bunch position. Among all accessions, the cultivar ‘Haji’ showed similarities in nine vegetative and 33 generative attributes, while the variations appeared in 14 vegetative and 15 generative traits. The genome group classification showed the banana cultivar ‘Haji’ had the ABB genome, and all the accessions had the defining characteristics of the ABB genome.