Potential of characters for evaluating common bean plant architecture

The objective of this work was to identify effective indicators of plant architecture in common bean, to subsidize or replace the evaluation by scores. Thirty-six common bean lines were evaluated regarding the main characters related to plant architecture and agronomic traits, in two harvest seasons. The experiments were carried out in a randomized complete block design with three replicates in Coimbra, MG, Brazil. Path analysis showed that the insertion angle of branches, plant height at harvest, and hypocotyl diameter were the main determinants of plant architecture of common bean. Hypocotyl diameter was strongly related to the architecture score, and allowed high accuracy and precision in measurement. This trait is easily measured and is an effective indicator of bean plant architecture.