Preliminary characterization of Psidium germplasm in different Brazilian ecogeographic regions

Abstract

The objective of this work was to characterize 119 accessions of guava and 40 accessions of "araçá" sampled in 35 Brazilian ecoregions, according to the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) descriptors. The majority of "araçá" accessions presented wide spacing of leaf veins, while guava accessions presented medium to close spacing. Most fruits of "araçá" accessions were classified as small, contrasting with medium to large fruits of guava accessions. Most of "araçá" accessions (91%) presented white flesh fruit color, while 58% of guava accessions presented pale pink, pink and dark pink colors. Fruit differences among wild and cultivated Psidium species indicate fruit as the most altered trait under artificial selection.

Characterization of fruits from the savanna: Araça (Psidium guinnensis Sw.) and Marolo (Annona crassiflora Mart.)

“…The araça species studied here conforms to the average characteristics evaluated for 40 different araça fruits identified in 35 Brazilian eco-regions (SANTOS et al, 2008), namely small fruits with dark green skin and cream-colored pulp. This can be confirmed from the L* value (52.58 ± 1.54), a* value (10.70 ± 0.99) and b* value (28.64 ± 1.22) -the color parameters found for the peel of the fruit from southern Minas Gerais studied in this paper.…”

Genetic divergence among Psidium accessions based on biochemical and agronomic variables

“…accessions of the field germplasm bank of Psidium (Table 1) installed in the experimental field Bebedouro of Embrapa Semiarid were collected. The accessions were sampled at physiological maturity in six different Brazilian states, as described by Santos et al (2008). Each accession was established in the field from four-month-old seed-grown seedlings, in January 2007.…”

“…The agronomic descriptions of guava collections in Brazil (Souza Junior et al 2002, Santos et al 2008, Silva Junior et al 2008 did not establish estimates of genetic distances between accessions, to support controlled crossings and the development of cultivars with improved traits, including higher levels of nutritional compounds. In the international literature divergence studies have been published based on morphological traits for collections of Mexican (Hernandez-Delgado et al 2007) and Cuban accessions (Rodriguez et al 2004).…”

Espécies da flora nativa nas Estações Experimentais da Agência Paulista de Tecnologia dos Agronegócios, Instituto Agronômico de Campinas, Estado de São Paulo, Brasil

“…O Brasil tem muitas espécies frutíferas nativas que possuem potencial para serem transformadas em fruteiras de expressão econômica (Clement 2001), com destaque, em nível mundial, para o abacaxi (Ananas) e plantas de outros gêneros, tais como Annona (Carvalho et al 2000), Passiflora (Faleiro et al 2005), Psidium (Santos et al 2008) e Rubus. Já a floricultura no Brasil ainda é pouco explorada, porém o país tem plantas nativas atrativas como bromélias, antúrios, orquídeas e helicônias, que são menos empregadas no setor ornamental por diversos fatores como desinformação e falta de pesquisa e/ou divulgação .…”