Reliability of Morphological Characters in Identification of Olive (Olea europaea L.) Varieties in Ex-Situ Conditions

Abstract

The study of the morphological characters of olive fruit and endocarp was carried out for 48 varieties planted in the collection of Boughrara (Sfax, Tunisia) and was compared to their characterization in the Tunisian catalog in their centers of origin. The study interested 8 characters for the fruit and 7 characters for the endocarp. The similarity rate was 73.3% for fruit characters and 64.6% for endocarp characters and eight characters of the two organs had similarity rates greater than 70%, particularly the weight, the apex shape and the presence of the nipple. Most varieties had similar identification for a total number of characters between 8 to 14 characters. The data revealed that the fruit contributed with 5 to 6 characters in the similarity of the varieties in the two databases against 4 to 5 characters for the endocarp. The results obtained showed a relatively strong discriminating power of the morphological characters in the identification of the different olive varieties in-situ and ex-situ conditions with an advantage for the fruit characters.