Fig. 1

Mature panicle structure in wild and domesticated African species. a Spread panicle from O. glaberrima (CG14), with the rachis in blue, the primary branches in green and the secondary branches in orange. b Mature panicle of O. barthii (Ob) and O. glaberrima (Og). C. Comparison of panicle traits at the mature stage between O. barthii (accession B88) and O. glaberrima (accession CG14). Black lines within box-plots show the median value; box limits indicate the 25th and 75th percentiles. PB_number, primary branches number; SB_number, secondary branches number; Sp_number, spikelet number. Rachis_length, values of rachis length in cm; PB_length, mean values of the length of primary branches per panicle in cm. Morphological traits were quantified using P-TRAP software [21], n = 18 panicles per species. Statistical significance (i.e., t test p values) between the two species for the different panicle traits is indicated