Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p> <italic>Irvingia wombolu</italic> (Vermoesen), the cooking type of bush mango, is an economically important but under-studied forest tree in West and Central Africa. This study characterized 88 accessions conserved at the National Horticultural Research Institute (NIHORT), Ibadan, Nigeria, to assess morphological, architectural, yield and genetic diversity for conservation and breeding. Morphological traits were evaluated on 73 accessions, yield and yield-related traits on 29 trees over five years (2013–2017), and molecular diversity using RAPD markers on 88 accessions. The trees showed significant variation in leaf shape, fruit and stone size. Broad-sense heritability ranged from 0.17 (number of fruits per tree) to 0.74 (fresh stone weight), with dry kernel weight (DKW) having moderate heritability estimate (H² = 0.33) and genetic advance as a percentage of the mean of 15.52%. Path analysis identified dry stone weight as the strongest direct contributor to DKW. Three superior ideotypes (Trees 9, 24 and 28) with high yield and desirable tree architecture were identified. Genetic diversity among the germplasm was high, with an average polymorphism information content value of 0.89 as shown by the RAPD markers. The dendrogram showed seven clusters, with clusters six and seven comprising 30 genotypes each. The presence of significant phenotypic and genotypic diversity among the studied accessions provides opportunities for genetic improvement and could promote domestication and commercialization of the products for farmers to supplement their income. </p>