Phenotypic, pomological and chemical variations of the seedless barberry (Berberis vulgaris L. var. asperma)

Berberis vulgaris L. var. asperma known as seedless barberry, is a shrub which produces edible berries. In the present study, 133 individuals of this fruit species from different regions of Khorasan-e-Jonoobi province from the eastern area of Iran were evaluated using 36 morphological and six fruit chemical characters. Considerable phenotypic, pomological and chemical variations were found among the studied individuals. For some phenotypic and pomological characters, variability found ranged from 155.00 to 410.00 mm in bunch length, 27.28 to 73.53 mm in bunch width, 25.05 to 128.85 g in bunch weight, 7.40 to 10.84 mm in berry length, 4.39 to 8.05 mm in berry width and 0.11 to 0.43 g in berry weight. For chemical characters, total soluble solids (TSS) varied from 15.00 to 31.00%, and titratable acidity (TA) ranged from 0.15 to 0.49%. In addition, anthocyanin content varied from 0.07 to 0.70 mg/g fresh fruit weight, and also ascorbic acid ranged from 45.05 to 180.18 mg/100 g fresh fruit weight. Bunch weight was highly positively correlated with bunch length (r = 0.49) and bunch width (r = 0.41). Berry weight was highly positively correlated with bunchlet weight (r = 0.26), berry length (r = 0.31) and berry width (r = 0.48). In addition, TSS was positively correlated with anthocyanin content (r = 0.30) and negatively correlated with TA (r = −0.29). The individuals were grouped into two main clusters, and clusters were divided into several sub-clusters with high diversity among the individuals according to each of phenotypic and chemical traits. The results of the current study indicated that the individuals studied must be conserved as valuable genetic resources. Also, it was found very important to enrich the seedless barberry gene pool to find several valuable well-adapted individuals suitable for the production.