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چکیده
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Common medlar (Mespilus germanica L.) is one of the latest maturating fruits and its fruit is used as a nutrition component and as a medicinal remedy. The present investigation was carried out to evaluate the morphological variability of 103 accessions of this species. The significant differences were detected among the accessions based on the measured morphological characters. Fruit length ranged from 14.91 to 23.68 mm, and fruit width varied from 14.21 to 23.46 mm. Moreover, 10 fruit weight ranged between 15.00 and 55.87 g with an average of 30.86. Fruit yield was positively correlated with tree vigor, tree canopy size, and branching, while it was negatively correlated with suckering. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that 74.48% of the variability observed was explained by the 11 components. The dendrogram created using cluster analysis grouped the accessions into two major clusters. The current finding showed that natural populations of medlar were diverse suggesting they are a high genetic potential, which could be used from the agronomic point of view to find several valuable well-adapted genotypes suitable for substantial improvement of the production. Thus, it is necessary to preserve the present available genetic material.
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