Some morphological traits of the fruit and apricot stone of Dagestan origin at the different ripening periods

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a comparative study of the cultivated and wild-growing apricot of Dagestan origin according to the morphological characteristics of the fruit and stone at different ripening periods. The pomological evaluation showed that the shape index of the fruit changes by one gradation regardless of the origin of the genotype, while the shape of the stone does not change and remains constant for all genotypes. For example, the fruit of the Kamil cultivar has an ovate shape at an early ripening period, and a circular one at late ripening. During ripening, the weight of the fruit doubles (1.8–2.6 times), while the ratio of stone mass to the weight of the fruit decreases (1.8–2.5 times). For cultivars and wild-growing forms, differences in the change in the linear dimensions and mass of the stone at different maturation periods were noted. The morphological characteristics of the fruit and stone in terms of the coefficient of variation (CV) vary more at the later stages of ripening, and in general are higher in cultivars than in wild plants, and the endocarp varies less than the fruit, at all periods of ripening.