Lathyrus sativus (grasspea) has been widely cultivated in South Asia and Ethiopia forrnover 2500 years and is used as a food and feed. It is rich in protein content, around 30rng/100 g edible seeds. Agronomically, the species is able to withstand both severe droughtrnas well as water logging. Although seeds of grasspea are tasty and protein rich, excessivernconsumption of the seeds causes a motor neuron disease called neurolathyrism which isrncharacterized by the paralysis of the lower limbs. The neurotoxic causal agent of thisrndisease is believed to be a non protein aminoacid called Oxalyl Di aminopropionic Acidrn(ODAP).rnMorphological marker analysis and molecular analysis have been used widely to estimaterngenetic variability of populations. These methods have useful in addressing questions onrnpopulation genetic structure and genetic conservation. Knowledge of genetic diversity ofrnspecies is particularly important, since modern breeding practices have narrowed therngenetic diversity of cultivated crops. In the case of grasspea, the problem of Lathyrism isrnleading to the banning of its production which in turn aggravates genetic erosion and lossrnof diversity of the crop.rnFifty one grasspea accessions which were selected from the genebank collection ofrnInternational Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) were evaluated and characterized forrndifferent qualitative and quantitative morphological characters. Cluster analysis wasrnperformed to estimate differences between accessions. Randomly Amplified PolymorphicrnDNA (RAPD) was also used to study the nature of variation. In addition to L. sativus,rnthree other species of the genus (L.cicera, L. clymenum and L. ochrus) and seventeenrnunidentified populations of Lathyrus were also evaluated for morphological andrnbiochemical characters and characterized accordingly. Cluster analysis of both thernmorphological and the RAPD data showed that all of the unidentified Lathyrusrnpopulations were found to be L. sativus. The result also showed that two of the accessionsrn(5295 and 5296) represented by L. ochrus and one accession (5282) represented by L.rncicera were found to be L. sativus. The results would suggest that germplasm evaluationrnis important for proper characterization of populations.rnKey words: Lathyrus sativus, grasspea, genetic diversity, morphological characters,rnRAPD, cluster analysis