MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE ECPGR WILD BRASSICA SPECIES COLLECTION

A project planned by the Brassica WG in the frame of Phase VIII (2009-2013) of the European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources (ECPGR) allowed to characterize several populations of wild Brassica in the same environmental condition, with the aim to characterize a collection of accessions conserved in several European genebanks. We characterized 26 accessions of wild Brassica species including Brassica barrelieri, Brassica balearica, Brassica bourgeaui, Brassica cretica, Brassica desnottesii, Brassica drepanensis, Brassica fruticulosa, Brassica hilarionis, Brassica insularis, Brassica incana, Brassica macrocarpa, Brassica montana, Brassica oleracea wild type, Brassica rapa, Brassica rupestris and Brassica villosa. The bio-morphological characterization was performed by the main IBPGR descriptors.
The data obtained were processed using SPSS program by applying the hierarchical cluster analysis with the method of the complete linkage (furthest neighbour). The cluster analysis classified the studied accessions in seven main groups with different characteristics.