Morphological diversity among fig (Ficus carica L.) accessions sampled from the Eastern Mediterranean Region of Turkey

Ficus carica L. is one of the most important fruit species in Turkey. For this study, 76 fig accessions were collected from Hatay, in the Eastern Mediterranean Region of Turkey, in 2008 and 2009; the morphological diversity of plants and fruits was evaluated. Of the samples studied, 2 accessions were determined to be first crop (breba) and the other 74 accessions were identified as main crop. The fruit quality characteristics of Bardak and Dolap for the first crop and Kabak 2, Kabak 1, Mor 1, Sari 1, and Siyah 1 for the main crop were very promising for the fresh fig market. The following fruit characteristics were found to be very successful discriminants for the fig accessions: apical dominancy, lateral shoot formation, leaf shape, number of lobes, length of central lobe, leaf area, and leaf width for plant and leaf characteristics, and fruit length, pH, fruit flesh color h degrees, abscission of the stalk from the twig, fruit width, fruit neck length, fruit weight, and antioxidant capacity. From the plant and fruit characteristics, 37 out of 64 traits were shown to be more useful in separating the fig accessions in the study area. It is suggested that for the nomenclature classification of genetic sources, reproducible parameters should be used as much as possible.