White mulberry (Morus alba L.) fruits contain considerable amounts of biologically active ingredients that might be associated with some potential pharmacological activities that are beneficial for health. In the current investigation, morphological and pomological variability of this species was evaluated. The majority of characters showed meaningful variabilities among the studied accessions. Fruit length varied from 14.35 to 26.98 mm with an average of 19.48 and fruit weight ranged between 0.94 and 2.86 g with an average of 1.59. Total soluble solids varied from 7.70 to 25.80% with an average of 16.17. Fruit weight showed positive and significant correlations with leaf and fruit dimensions. Principal component analysis (PCA) described the characters as the seven main components which were able to justify 76.42% of total variance. The dendrogram generated based on the recorded traits revealed two separate clusters and showed the existence of significant variability among the studied accessions. According to the optimum indices for fruit quality in white mulberry, 19 accessions were superior and can be singled out for cultivation. The present findings indicated that the studied accessions may be recognized as a representative gene pool of white mulberry.
