Kumaran, P.M.Arunachalam, V.Dash, D.K.2014-06-042014-06-042004-12Journal of plantation crops 32(suppl.) December 2003 : 39-45http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/2371Ten coconut populations of Orissa, lndia were collected from Konark, Sakhigopal and Purl. uuring rne survey, data pertaining to vegetative, reproductive and fruit component characters were recorded on source populations. The same has been subjected to principal component analysis individually for understanding the divergence. Of the three sets of data used, fruit component characters gave very good results with 82 % of variation explained by PC1 and PC2. The accessions Odissi Giant and Bana were found to be distinct considering this data. When we used the characters having high PC loadings in all the three sets of data, the accession Narangi also joined the cluster containing Bana, although only 66% of variation was explained by PC1 and PC2. During recent cyclone that hit the region severely took toll of many humans and perennial plants. This effort conserved most of coconut diversity of the state which otherwise would have been vanished.enPrincipal component analysisdivergencecoconut diversityArticle