Preliminary characterization and morpho-agronomic evaluation of the olive germplasm collection of the Mendoza province (Argentina)

In Mendoza, little is known about the olive germplasm, and even though there is a collection, studies about characterization and evaluation are scarce. The aims of this work were to make a morpho-agronomic characterization of the Mendoza olive collection and to identify locally adapted accessions with a good aptitude for oil production. Quantitative traits were measured in pit, fruit, inflorescence, and leave samples, and oil content, flowering and maturity days were also measured. In order to group the genetic material and evaluate the phenotypic variability, descriptive statistics, cluster analysis, and principal components analysis were used. The 61 accessions were grouped in 12 clusters based on the multivariate analysis of 19 traits. The collection featured phenotypic variability for all the studied traits, especially for the fruit fresh weight, pulp-pit ratio, and oil content on fresh weight basis. Seventeen accessions suitable for oil production were selected, seven of which could also be used for table.