FRUIT CHARACTERISTICS OF WILD PLUM (PRUNUS DİVARİCATA LEDEB.) GENOTYPES NATURALLY GROWING IN HIGH MOUNTAINOUS AREAS OF CENTRAL ANATOLIA

• Main Authors: Aydin Uzun, Hasan Pinar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Editura Universitatii din Pitesti 2019-07-01
• Series: Current Trends in Natural Sciences
• Subjects: anatolia; fruit; plum; prunus.
• Online Access: https://natsci.upit.ro/media/1800/14uzun-and-pinar.pdf

Prunus divaricata is a wild plum species also known as cherry plum within the Rosaceae family. This species is wild growing, diploid, self-incompatible fruit tree that widely distributed from the Balkan Peninsula across Anatolia and the Caucasus to Central Asia, including northern Iran. Grow as shrub or small tree, 2-4 m; weakly thorny, young shoots and buds glabrous. Fruit is the species 10-15 x 8-12 mm; globose or ovate, pendent, yellow, red or pink. In this study some fruit characteristics of P. divaricata genotypes naturally growing at 2200 m of altitude. Thirteen genotypes were evaluated and significant differences were found for fruit parameters. Fruit weight of studied genotypes ranged between 1.2-3.7 g. Pedicel lenght of genotypes changed from 9.2 to 15.9 mm. Total soluble solids (TSS) of wild plums varied between 12 and 27%. Rind color of the genotypes changed between light red and claret red. High level of variations found among P. divaricata genotypes may be due to seed propagation. Diversity of this species should be conservation and may be use to increase variation in cultivated Prunus species.