Morphological diversity of cornelian cherry (Cornus mas L.) populations in the Stara Planina Mountain, Serbia

In this study, 150 cornelian cherry accessions originated from natural population on Stara Planina Mountain (Serbia) were characterized using a set of 31 morphological traits. Besides its characterizing and quantifying the variability of its morphological traits, the objective of this study was to identify intra- and interpopulation variability and relationships among the accessions and to detect the most useful variables for discrimination. The evaluation was carried out over a period of 3 years. In order to evaluate the phenotypic variability, descriptive statistics, principal components analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis were used. Coefficient of variation (CV) showed the highest values for the number of flower buds per fruiting twig, while the lowest CV being evident in traits involving flowers and stones. PCA shows high discrimination capabilities of variables measured. Most of these variables were fruit and stone characteristics. PCA also evaluated the compactness and the peculiarity of each accession, thus providing information on the mixing level among them within the space of their morphological traits. Cluster analysis revealed grouping of accessions in three main clusters, where clusters with large number of accessions undergo sub-clustering. Separation into clusters and sub-clusters was not in a function of a locality or altitude, but in a function of genotypes. The results of this study indicate that these accessions must be conserved as valuable genetic resources determine and characterize its biodiversity. Also, it was found very important to enrich the cornelian cherry gene pool in order to find several valuable well-adapted genotypes suitable for the production.