Inter-annual and genotypic variation of morphological and physicochemical characters in moroccan loquat (Eriobotrya Japonica Lindl.)

Abstract

Plant development is constantly affected by biotic and abiotic factors, which influence their morphology and chemical composition. In this context, the evaluation of morphological and physicochemical variation of 35 loquat genotypes during two consecutive years, 2015 and 2016, were carried out. The results revealed a significant difference of the morphological and the physicochemical traits between the two years. Indeed, 2016 showed high values for fruit and leaf traits as well as the physicochemical parmeters, while 2015 recoreded the highest values for seeds traits. In addition, the ANOVA results showed a significant effect of genotype on the physicochemical parameters and the morphological characters, excluding the geometric diameter and spherical index of seeds. Regarding the effect of year, it was also significant on physicochemical parameters and morphological traits except the size and shape of fruit and the seed shape. For the genotype x year interaction effect, it was significant on all traits studied, with the exception of the traits relating to geometric diameter of fruit and seed plus the sphericity index of the seed. Thus, size and shape of fruit remained stable over these two consecutive years. The identification of stable traits presents a result that could be beneficial for breeding programs.