Phenotypic and fruit characterizations of Prunus divaricata Ledeb. germplasm from the north of Iran

Domestication of Prunus divaricata Ledeb. offers considerable scope for enhancing the nutritional and economic security of farmers. In the present study, phenotypic and pomological variability among 73 accessions of this species selected from eight natural habitats in the northern parts of Iran was investigated. The majority of traits measured showed significant variations among the investigated accessions. Leaf length ranged from 21.91 to 68.47 mm and leaf width varied from 8.17 to 36.39 mm. Fruit length varied from 11.48 to 28.01 mm and fruit weight ranged from 1.79 to 14.09 g with an average of 4.46. Fruit skin color was highly diverse so that 11 types of color were observed among the accessions ranging from yellowish-green to black. Fruit weight showed positive and significant correlations with leaf and fruit dimensions. Principal component analysis (PCA) extracted 10 components with explaining 74.52% of total variance and showed that the most important variables in distinguishing accessions were fruit size-related traits. The dendrogram obtained based on all the characters measured clustered the accessions into two major clusters. A high level of morphological and pomological variabilities was observed among the accessions, which is applicable and useful for plum breeding programs. The conclusion of the current investigation confirmed the necessity of preserving this irreplaceable genetic resource in its natural habitats in the north of Iran as well as ex-situ in germplasm collections. Finally, the investigated P. divaricata germplasm included some accessions that possessed valuable morphological and pomological traits which could be of special interest in marketing.