Pomegranate Genotypic Diversity Assessment

Twelve morphological traits of pomegranates were used to study the diversity of genotypes, which included the number of fruit per tree (NFT), mean fruit weight (FMW), mean tree yield (TMY), anthocyanin on the branch of this year (ABTY), petiole color (PC), fruitful flower size (FFS), Fruit albedo color (FAC), fruit bottom shape (FBS), fruit heel shape (FHS), juice content of arils (JA), seed size (SS), and seed color (SC). The number of plants evaluated for each genotype was three trees from which eight samples for each genotype were randomly harvested, and transferred to the laboratory for assessment. Fruit sampling was performed during their ripening stage. Qualitative traits were evaluated visually and then scored (Table 1). As the preliminary analysis of data for two consecutive growing seasons (2017–2019) showed no significant difference, the average of two years of data was used for statistical analysis to increase the accuracy in the analysis.