Structure of the phenotypic variability of fruit and seed traits in natural populations of Eugenia dysenterica dc. (Myrtaceae)

Eugenia dysenterica DC. (cagaita tree) is a fruit tree native to the Brazilian Ccrrado. It is a promising species for cultivation, but little basic information exists on the phenotypic diversity and quantitative variation of its fruits and seeds at a population scale. Thus, the present study proposes to estimate the phenotypic parameters of the species' fruits and seeds based on the variability among mother plants and among subpopulations, thereby aiming to increase knowledge for breeding and conservation of the species. For this, 25 natural subpopulations (local populations) were sampled in five Brazilian states. Within each subpopulation, 20 fruits were collected from each of six sampled mother plants. Data for biomass, transverse and longitudinal lengths of the fruits and seeds were subjected to estimates of descriptive parameters, correlation and hierarchical analysis of variance (ANOVA). Significant variation, including high levels of phenotypic variation, was observed among mother plants within the subpopulations and between the subpopulations. The high variation and the formation of phenotypically divergent groups arc important elements for the breeding of cagaita tree, whose mother plants can now be selected for the traits studied. Phenotypic divergence between populations (P-ST) can be used as an indicator of the structuring of the phenotypic variation of the species in its natural area of occurrence.