Canopy and fruit characters with morphological relationships of European and Asian water chestnuts (Trapa spp.)

Seventeen water chestnut lines representing Europe and Asia were studied for their canopy growth and fruit morphology during the summer 2005, in the experimental field, Saga University. Leaf area of a single leaf, SLA, and LAI at the beginning of flowering were significantly higher for the Chinese lines compared to other Asian and European lines. European lines had a LAI of less than one and produced thicker leaves. Since all the Asian lines formed compacted canopies, their rosette leaves tend to orient vertically over the water surface, but the rosettes of European lines expanded over the water table. Even though Chinese lines produced heavy, large fruits with 6.5-20.5 g per fruit, a huge variation in fruit shape and size was observed. Multivariate grouping using both vegetative and fruit characters revealed to have four distinct groups of lines.