Floral quality components of a new olive cultivar and its parents

Floral quality has a significant influence on the final fruit crop, so it is an important parameter for olive (Olea europaea L.) and other fruit tree breeding programs. Little is known, however, regarding the genitor influence of this character. In this study, we examine the floral quality of a new, recently released olive cultivar, 'Sikitita', and that of its parent cultivars ('Picual' and 'Arbequina'), in order to characterize this new cultivar and evaluate parental influence. The results indicated a high percentage and significant variability due to genotype in all evaluated parameters. 'Sikitita' was similar to 'Arbequina' (the male parent) for flower number and ovule development and intermediate to its parents for perfect flower number and percentage. As well as providing new cultivar information these results are among very few which evaluate inheritance of tree crop flower quality characteristics. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.