VARIABILITY IN MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS OF CHILE MANZANO (Capsicum pubescens R. & P.) ACCESSIONS

Abstract

To sample chile manzano (Capsicum pubescens R. & P.) fruits and assess diversity while prospecting is done based on fruit morphology, explorations and collecting was done in seven states of the Mexican Republic; 84 native populations were assembled from temperate and semi-cold regions in between 1572 to 2700 m altitude. During the collection, of flower, fruit size and number of seeds per trait were recorded. The principal component analysis determined that fruit length, fruit width, number of seeds per fruit and per loculus were the best classifying traits. The cluster and discriminant analysis were useful to separate the accessions in contrasting groups: by fruit size in larges or smalls (elongated, round or apple shape), the number of loculus (less than two, two or more than two), and seeds per fruit and loculus, as well as their combinations.