The Persian (English) walnut (Juglans regia L.) assortment of Hungary: Nut characteristics and origin

•Origin of all Hungarian bred walnut varieties were checked.•Influence of the some French walnut varieties to the Hungarian walnut assortment.•Correlation of the nut characteristics.•Examination of the Hungarian bred varieties’ nut characteristics. Persian walnut growing has a long-term tradition in Hungary. The walnut breeding started with the domestication of French varieties propagated by seeds in the 1910s, which was not successful. From the 1950s the Hungarian breeding research used selections from the local population, cross breeding and back crosses as breeding methods. The aim of this paper is to examine the origin and the nut characteristics of the Hungarian bred varieties registered on the National Variety List. The grafted trees for sample collection were planted in spring of 1990 at the Experimental Fields. Strong relationships between nut height and dried nut weight, dried nut weight and kernel weight, nut width and dried nut weight, nut diameter and nut width, dried nut weight and nut diameter, kernel weight and nut diameter as described in the literature was confirmed. Another relation (nut width and kernel weight) showed a strong relation too. All of the Hungarian bred varieties have a unique genetic background. The relation is not apparent between the introduced and the local varieties in all cases. It was concluded from the genetic pattern that the French seedling varieties might have not influenced the Hungarian varieties in the extent it was supposed formerly.