Influence of some agronomic and ecological factors on the constancy of expression of some descriptive characters included in the UPOV apricot descriptor list.

摘要

In order to verify the constancy of expression and the actual discriminating capacity of descriptive characters included in the UPOV apricot descriptor list, a two-year study was conducted, in the context of the European research project "Abrimed", on 12 international apricot cultivars, grafted on two different rootstocks and distributed in four replications in a collection field located on the Tuscan coastal plain. The influence of the genetic characteristics, of the rootstock and of the annual climatic conditions on the expression of analysed descriptors was determined and, through a discriminating analysis carried out using a stepwise method, the importance of each character in the varietal description was identified. Among the 57 descriptors examined, there is a considerable number (20) that, according to this analysis, would not have, in our case, an effective discriminating capacity..