Genotypic Diversity of Prune and Plum Using Morphological Characteristics in Maragheh Region

To study genotypic diversity of prune and plum, 18 quantitative and qualitative characteristics of 38 genotypes were evaluated based on IBPGR descriptor. Results of variance analysis showed that most of the characteristics in evaluated genotypes were significantly different indicating high variation in characteristics. Simple correlation analysis showed positive and negative correlations among some important characteristics. Factor analysis indicated that fruit and stone shape, flower size, flower colour, self-fertility and date of flowering are the component of the main factors. Effective characteristics were categorized in five factors accounted for 76% of total variance. Eigen value more than 0.7 was considered significant for each factor. Cluster analysis in the distance of 9, divided genotypes into four main groups. These groups mainly differed in fruit and stone shape, self- fertility and stone adherence to flesh and had effective role in cluster organizing .