Abstract

RUELAS HERNANDEZ, Pablo Germán et al. Morphological diversity of cultivated species of pumpkin (Cucurbita spp.) in the State of Nayarit. Rev. Mex. Cienc. Agríc [online]. 2015, vol.6, n.8, pp.1845-1856. ISSN 2007-0934.

The information on identification and morphological diversity of pumpkin (Cucurbita spp.) is important for its use, development and conservation of this species. The objective of this work was to study the morphological diversity of pumpkin grown in Nayarit. The characterization work was conducted in the spring-summer cycle of 2012, under rainfed conditions in the villages of Xalisco and Mexpan, State of Nayarit. 33 accessions of four species were described with 43 morphological descriptors. Statistical support realized on the principal component analysis and clusters were made by the method of Ward. The first three principal components explained 53.3% of the total variability; in the dendogram six groups with similar morphological characteristics were formed with euclidean distance of 0.06. The characteristics that contributed more to explaining the diversity found and allowed to distinguish between species were: C. moschata, contrasting to other species regarding leaf size, thickness and number of seeds, weight and width of fruit, C. argyrosperma in features and dimensions of the stem, width, length and weight of100 seeds, C. ficifolia in colour of the fruit pulp and C. pepo in weight and dimensions of fruit and seed with lower values to that expressed by other species. With this study it was possible to establish the diversity of species that are grown in the State of Nayarit.

Keywords : Cucurbita spp.; cluster analysis; principal components; varietal characterization.

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