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Region-specific local landraces represent a germplasm diversity adapted and acclimatized to local conditions, and are ideal to breed for targeted market niches while maintaining the variability of heirloom traits. A collection of 180 pepper accessions, collected from 62 diverse locations across six Balkan countries, were characterized and evaluated for phenotypic and biochemical variation during a multi-year environment. An assortment of 32 agro-morphological, fruit quality, and virus resistance traits were evaluated, and the top 10% accessions were identified. A wide range of trait variation concerning plant architecture, inflorescence and fruit traits, yield and fruit quality was observed, and appreciable variation was noticed. According to hierarchical clustering, six distinct clusters were established based on pre-defined varietal groups. Divergence among accessions for phenotypic and fruit compositional variability was analyzed, and eight principal components were identified that contributed~71% of the variation, with fruit shape, width, wall thickness, weight, and fruit quality traits being the most discriminant. Evaluation of the response to tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and pepper mild mottle mosaic virus (PMMoV) showed that 24 and 1 accession were resistant, respectively while no tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) resistance was found. Considerable diversity for agro-biomorphological traits indicates the Balkan pepper collection as good gene sources for prebreeding and cultivar development that are locally adapted.

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Morphological variation in vegetative and fruit traits is a key determinant in unraveling phenotypic diversity. This study was designed to assess phenotypic diversity in tomatoes and examine intra- and intervarietal groups’ variability using 28 conventional descriptors (CDs) and 47 Tomato Analyzer (TA) descriptors related to plant and fruit morphometry. Comprehensive phenotyping of 150 accessions representing 21 countries discerned noticeable variability for CD vegetative traits and TA quantified fruit features, such as shape, size, and color. Hierarchical cluster analysis divided the accessions into 10 distinct classes based on fruit shape and size. Multivariate analysis was used to assess divergence in variable traits among populations. Eight principal components with an eigenvalue >1 were identified by factor analysis, which contributed 87.5% variation to the total cumulative variance with the first two components contributing 32.0% and 18.1% variance, respectively. The relationship between vegetative and fruit descriptors was explained by respective CD and TA correlation networks. There was a strong positive correlation between fruit shape and size whereas negative correlations were between fruit shape index, internal eccentricity, and proximal end shape. The combined approach of CD and TA phenotyping allowed us to unravel the phenotypic diversity of vegetative and reproductive trait variation evaluated at pre- and post-harvest stages.