Morphological characters of vegetative parts on six-month-old Aceh local cassava

Abstract Cassava (Manihot esculenta) is Indonesia’s third staple food commodity after rice and corn. Cassava is a carbohydrate source in food and industrial raw materials such as flour, mocaf, liquid sugar, feed, glue, and paper. Limited research on local Acehnese cassava plants still results in a lack of information. This research focused on local Acehnese cassava plants at the age of six months to explore the potential to be developed at the national level. This study aimed to characterize and inventorize the potential of local Acehnese cassava plants at the age of six months. The research was conducted in Lhokseumawe City and Bireuen Regency of Aceh Province and at the Agroecotechnology Laboratory of the Agriculture Faculty at Malikussaleh University from September 2021 to January 2022. Exploratory research was conducted using descriptive methods with purposive sampling. The plants observed had the criteria that matched the plants aged six months after planting. The results showed that local Acehnese cassava plants have a wide range of morphological diversity, which can be seen from the characteristics of lobe margin, central leaflet, leaf color, the color of leaf veins, bulge and distance of leaf scars, and stem growth shape.