Schriften zu Genetischen Ressourcen - Genres

Morphological characters in garlic compared with existing molecular classifications
Fig. 1 a-c: Examples for characters used in morphological descriptions of garlic
accessions
a: scape; b: PRB/PRFL; c: BSTR
The following 16 descriptors have been used for this study:
BSTR bulb structure type (Fig. 1c) PD pseudostem diameter
BW bulbil weight PH pseudostem height
CC skin colour of the cloves PRB presence of bulbils (Fig. 1b)
HM harvest maturity PRFL presence of flowers (Fig. 1b)
FA foliage attitude SCAPE ability to form scapes (Fig. 1a)
FC foliage colour SHSV side view shape of the compound bulb
NRC number of cloves per bulb SHTV top view shape of full-grown bulbs
OC outer skin colour of the bulb SZC size of the cloves
For precise characterisation, the cloves were planted in field plots with planting distances
of 15 cm within the lines and 62 cm between the rows. Of each accession 40
cloves were planted in the first year. For the repeated characterisation 10 cloves per
accession were used in the next year. All characterisation data have been arranged
in scores of 2 to 6 classes.
Results and discussion
The characterisation of the accessions in two successive years demonstrated similar
results concerning the main characterisation parameters such as ability to produce
scape, presence of bulbils and flowers, number of cloves, pseudostem height and
bulb structure. Intra-clonal variability has been found in the character “Ability to produce
scape” especially in the short-stalked forms. In this case, this character varied
from scapes sitting only inside the bulb to the break of the bulbils through the leaf
sheaths of the pseudostem in various heights from the soil level up to the end of the
pseudostem. The characterisation data were used for principal components (Tables
1, 2) and cluster analyses.
328