CHARACTERIZATION OF CAPRIFIG (Ficus carica var. caprificus) ACCESSIONS SELECTED FROM VARIOUS LOCATIONS IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN REGION OF TURKEY

The study was conducted to investigate the some morphological and pollinizer characteristics on caprifig accessions selected from five locations (Adana, Hatay, Kahramanmaraş, Mersin, and Osmaniye) in eastern Mediterranean region and six standard cultivars (‘Ak İlek’, ‘Armut İlek’, ‘Elma İlek’, ‘Hamza’, ‘Küçük Konkur’, and ‘Taşlık’) from Aydin location in the Aegean Region of Turkey. A total of 27 characteristics included profichi crops of caprifigs were observed in Adana (12 accessions), Hatay (37 accessions), Kahramanmaraş (17 accessions), Mersin (22 accessions), and Osmaniye (9 accessions) locations and six standard cultivars in 2014 and 2015 years. The average fruit weight per profichi crop of the cultivars (30.33 g) in Aydın location and caprifigs (27.41 g) in Hatay location were the highest compared with the caprifigs selected from Adana (23.14 g), Mersin (19.84), Kahramanmaraş (17.57 g), and Osmaniye (16.10 g) locations. The caprifigs in Mersin location had the darkness fruit skin color. The number of gall flowers was highest in cultivars (634.07), whereas the number of male flowers was found to be highest caprifigs (142.41) in Adana location. The pollen viability of caprifigs ranged between 65.76% (Mersin) and 90.51 (Cultivars). The highest of pollen number per profichi fruit were found caprifigs in Adana (824.188). The cluster analysis showed that Hatay caprifigs and standard cultivars and also Kahramanmaraş and Osmaniye caprifigs were partly similar to each other according to morphological and pollinizer characteristics. The lightness (L) caprifig fruit skin colors were measured in Adana location (57.43). The highest a* value was detected in Mersin location (-6.80). The lowest b* values was found in Kahramanmaraş location (24.97). Caliskan and Polat (2012) indicated that lowest L*, C and h° values are correlated with darkest fig skin colors. The darkness fruit skin colors were measured caprifigs in Mersin location with the lowest chroma ( C ) and hue ( h° ) values (36.19, and 80.61, respectively). However, most of the caprifigs had the green skin colors. Some researchers showed that the fruit skin colors of caprifigs are mainly green (Condit 1955, Khadivi-Khub and Anjam 2014). The number of the gale flowers per profichi varied from 376.31 (Kahramanmaraş) and 634.07 (Aydın). The number of male flowers per profichi was highest in Adana location (142.41) while it was lowest in Kahramanmaraş location (98.28). Khadivi-Khub and Anjam (2014) displayed that the number of Blastophaga in profichi fruits ranged between 4.0 and 267.0 in Iranian caprifigs. Previous reports showed that when pollen viability was over 50% al. pollen germination was over 30% (Dokuzoguz the pollen can be considered functional. Pollen viability ranged between 65.76 (Mersin) and 90.51% (Aydın) and pollen germination ranged between 25.22 (Mersin) and 56.54% (Adana). The pollen numbers per anther,