Diversidad morfológica de semilla y fruto de diez colectas mexicanas de Lagenaria siceraria

Lagenaria siceraria presents a great morphological diversity of seed and fruit, so it is necessary to group them in morphotypes according to the similarities in characters. The objective of this study was to analyze and quantify the morphological variation of seed and fruit of ten collections of L. siceraria, from different Mexican regions. The research was conducted in the experimental field of the Agricultural Sciences Institute of the Autonomous University Baja California, Mexico, during the spring-summer 2014 cycle. Seventeen quantitative fruit and seed characters were evaluated, and analyzed with multivariate techniques. The phenotypic variation of L. siceraria was identified mainly by the length and diameter of seed, and in fruit by the length and lower circumference. Two groups were formed at levels of dissimilarity of 0,76 and 0,69, respectively. The first group was integrated by collections L45, L46, L47, and L56, which had smaller dimensions in fruit and seed, with a higher level of similarity between the materials. The second group was formed by L43, L48, L50, L53, L54, and L55 landraces, this group had more variables and presented larger dimensions than previous one. The aforementioned shows that there exists a genetic variability in the Mexico’s native L. siceraria materials.