Kjaer et al., [11] reported the results of their investigation of the morphological variation of sago palms in
seven localities in Papua New Guinea. Ten morphological variables studied were number of leaves, number
of leaflets, width of leaflets, length of leaflets, length of petiole, width of petiole, length of rachis, thickness
of petiole, and presence or absence of spines. Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) was used
to analyze genetic variation using selective primer combinations. The primer pairs EcoR1-ACT/MseI-CAT
yielded 41 bands 16 of which were polymorphic. The primer pairs EcoR1-ACC/MseI-CTT produced 26
bands 16 of which were polymorphic [11]. Quantitative analysis of results indicated that vegetative
morphological characteristics, most especially the presence or absence of spines have no relation to the
underlying genetic variation.