Analysis of the morphological diversity of Daxigou wild apricot floral organs in Huocheng, Xinjiang, China

The main objective of this study was to determine the genetic diversity of Xinjiang wild apricot germplasm resources, and lay the foundation for the development and utilization of apricot resources. A total of 61 accessions of Daxigou wild apricot were collected as the research material in Huocheng, Xinjiang. The external morphological characters of the floral organs were observed. The data processing software DPS7.05 was used to calculate the diversity index and for principal component analysis, and MEGA3.0 software was used for cluster analysis. We analyzed the wild apricot flower organs for differences in 17 phenotypic traits. The average diversity index of the Daxigou wild apricot flower organs, which showed abundant morphological diversity, was 5.8872. The diversity of the morphological characters with numeric indices was better than that of the characters with non-numeric indices. The coefficient of variation of the morphological characters of flower organs varied from 6.25 to 97.93%. Through multivariate principal component analysis, we determined that the first seven principal components of the 17 traits represented most of the information on organ morphology of Daxigou wild apricot; the cumulative contribution rate was 72.6815%. Based on the clustering analysis of morphological characters, 61 wild apricot germplasm resources were finally gathered into one class. The diversity of the floral traits of Daxigou wild apricot was greater. The corolla diameter, ovary size, petal size, anther size, petal color, pedicel length, petal shape, and pollen quantity were the main factors contributing to the diversity of Daxigou wild apricot.