Eight accessions of swordbean (Canavalia gladiata (Jacq.) DC.) were collected from eight agroclimatic regions of Tamil Nadu, India. A portion of the collected seeds of accessions will be deposited in NBPGR, New Delhi. The most pronounced differences in agrobotanical characters were observed in seed germination percentage, plant height, number of branches per plant, number of leaves (180th day) per plant, leaf area (150th day), early flowering, fertility index and 100-seed-weight. Differences in the contents of crude protein and crude lipid in the seeds of different accessions also appeared to be significant. Performance of Lowerkodiyar and Mundanthurai accessions under test conditions was superior and suggested that breeders might exploit the genome of these accessions in current pulse crop improvement programmes.