Are `Oblonga' and `Frantoio' Olives the Same Cultivar?

Abstract

The cultivar Oblonga may have originated from a volunteer seedling at an orchard near Corning, Calif., about 1940. Its main virtue is its high degree of resistance to Verticillium dahliae. `Frantoio' is the main variety in Italy and has been planted worldwide because of its high content of top-quality oil. In the present study, we show that both cultivars have the same fifteen morphological and eight agronomical traits and both have amplified the same patterns for 22 RAPD primers and five SSRs. This indicates that `Oblonga' and `Frantoio' are probably the same cultivar.