Seed morphometrics of white and black fonio seeds: passport data and morphometrics data

Plant genetic resources characterization is essential for their conservation and their use in both breeding strategies and adaptation to global change. In Western Africa, two small indigenous grain cereals are found, black and white fonio (Digitaria exilis and Digitaria iburua respectively). Fonio genetic resources are preserved in seed collections, yet seed characterization is not used to identify the two fonio species. We analysed seeds of 98 accessions of white fonio and 20 accessions of black fonio. We used a morphometric approach as a simple and reliable method to identify the two fonio species, which is crucial to improve the quality of associated passport data and to enhance the value of fonio collections. We provide here the passport data and the morphometric data used to perform the analyses.