Morphologic Variation for Fruit Characteristics in the USDA/ARS Capsicum baccatum L. Germplasm Collection

Abstract

Mature fruit of 295 accessions of Capsicum baccatum from the USDA/ARS Capsicum germplasm collection were characterized for fruit length, width, weight, and color. Mean fruit weight was determined to be 5.91 g with a range of 0.15 to 22.8 g. Mean fruit length was 6.01 cm with a range of 0.8 to 16.0 cm. Mean fruit width was 1.86 cm and a range of 0.5 to 4.75 cm. Distributions of all characteristics were positively skewed and failed the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for normality. The distribution of fruit weight values was the most highly skewed, possibly reflecting a more intense human selection pressure for this characteristic. Distributions of fruit width, length, weight, and length:width were leptokurtic (long-tailed). Ninety-three percent of accessions were elongate. Mature fruit colors included red (73.6%), orange (19.7%), yellow (3%), green (0.3%), and mixed (3%). These data suggest that variability for mature fruit characteristics within this germplasm collection is considerable and that variability for fruit length, width, weight, and color is sufficient to provide the basis for the improvement of the aji crop.