Morphometric Characterization and Identification of Some Varieties of Pomegranate (Punica granatum) in the Wilaya of Tlemcen

Abstract

The common pomegranate (Punica granatum) is a perennial tree, drought tolerant, able to growin poor and alkaline soils. It has beenconsidered as one of the oldest and most famous tree. Because of its richness in nutrients andversatile uses, it gained a huge economic interest. This fruit tree has been the subject of significantgenetic improvement globally. However, in Algeria no such improvement program has been undertaken. In order to developnew varieties that match the needed criteria, and to preserve, restore and enhance the diversity of existing genetic material, this study was conducted for morphometric analysis for the identification and characterization of the common pomegranate in the wilaya of Tlemcen. The data werecollected from farmers of five municipalities:Fellaoucen, Remchi, Nedroma, Ghazaouet and Ain Ghrabaon 9(nine) quantitative and 8 (eight) qualitative measurements (based on the recommendations of the Union for the Protection of new varieties of plants),from  five fruis, and 100arils of 65 pomegranates plants,The data were analyzed  using R software following SPSS, The principal component analysis (PCA), hierarchical classification (CAH), Shannon and Weaver diversity index, and multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) were also made. This study revealed the existence of a large morphological diversity