Abstract

QUEVEDO GUERRERO, José Nicasio et al. Morfoagronomic diversity: characterization of 650 trees of Theobroma cacao L.. Universidad y Sociedad [online]. 2020, vol.12, n.6, pp. 14-21.  Epub Dec 02, 2020. ISSN 2218-3620.

Cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) has a wide genetic diversity in Ecuador; the province of El Oro is one of the three provinces that register areas of cultivation of fine and aroma cacao, for this reason, studies that allow knowing the existing morphoagronomic diversity of this species. The objective was to characterize 650 trees in situ that form the living cocoa collection of the Technical University of Machala, collected by the National Cocoa Program in 1979. For the characterization, 51 quantitative and qualitative morphoagronomic descriptors were used. The PCA analysis showed that the most discriminating descriptors were: leaf width (HA), leaf length (LH), pedicel anthocyanin intensity (PIC), ovary anthocyanin intensity (OIC), style (ESA), style length (ESL), ligule width (LA), pedicel width (SA), groove depth (FSP), ridge thickness (FCE), berry weight (FBP), length berry (FBL), which explain 34% of the total accumulated variance. In the cluster analysis using the hierarchical cluster method, the dendrogram was obtained, which shows ten large well-defined groups. A high phenotypic diversity is evidenced, 60 trees representing the diversity of the collection.

Keywords : Descriptor; anthocyanin; phenotypic; main components.

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