DEVELOPING AND APPLYING DESCRIPTORS FOR BREADFRUIT GERMPLASM

Breadfruit (Artocarpus, Moraceae) is an important staple in Oceania and widely used throughout much of the tropics. Hundreds of cultivars have been selected and named in the Pacific Islands, with more than 2,000 vernacular names documented. Folk taxonomy is used to distinguish between and assign names to different cultivars, but breadfruit diversity has not been consistently characterized nor is there an IPGRI Descriptor List for breadfruit. Sixty morphological descriptors are being used to characterize 172 accessions (200 trees) in a field genebank at the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) in Hawaii. Quantitative and categorical descriptor data are being recorded by assessing (n=10) mature fruits, leaves, male flowers, and seeds per tree. Morphological characters include fruit weight, dimensions, shape, skin color/texture, scabbing of fruit sections, flesh color, latex quantity/color, core dimensions, collar/neck shape, and peduncle dimensions/insertion; seed weight, dimensions, shape and seed coat color; male flower dimensions; and leaf dimensions, lobe number, degree of dissection, color, surface texture/flexibility, margin, apex/base shape, vein color, and leaf hairs. A major component of the project is extensive photographic documentation of the collection. An illustrated Descriptor List will be produced which can be used as the standard to describe breadfruit germplasm.