Objective The diversity of Choerospondias axillaris germplasms was studied for breed selection as the increasing market demand on the fruits making it a promising economic crop to help alleviate the poverty in the mountainous areas in Fujian.
Methods The fruit morphology of 49 varieties of C. axillaris were compared and statistically classified.
Results The variation coefficients on 17 morphological characteristics of the fruits ranged from 7.07% to 29.91% in the order of:individual fruit weight > stone weight > pericarp weight > stone length > fruit diameter > fruit length > edible proportion > stone shape index > stone diameter > fruit shape index. The edible proportion significantly correlated to the weight or diameter of an individual fruit, but not to the weight of pericarp or stone. The principal component analysis indicated that the 7 top-ranking indicators contributed to 81.61% of the variation, and the individual fruit weight alone 32.98%. The eigenvectors were found to be fruit weight, fruit length, fruit diameter, stone weight, pericarp weight, and stone length. The cluster analysis divided the 49 germplasms at the Euclidean distance of 11.60 into 5 different groups.
Conclusion Each morphological characteristic of C. axillaris fruits appeared to affect the total phenotype. Current C. axillaris germplasm collection was richly diversified genetically and morphologically.
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