Polymorphism of the leaf and fruit of the Sargent’s apple tree (Malus sargentii Rehd) under the conditions of Sakhalin and the Moscow region

Abstract

The article summarizes the materials on the assessment of the variability of the characteristics of the Sargent’s apple tree (Malus sargentii), which is widely used in breeding, is a donor of immunity to scab and powdery mildew, and is also used in ornamental horticulture. The objects of study are the leaves and fruits of the Sargent apple tree, collected in the botanical garden on Sakhalin and in Moscow. The polymorphism score of 10 quantitative traits of the flower and fruit was determined by calculating the coefficients of variation. It was found that in both regions, leaf length, leaf blade length, stalk length, fruit length and fruit diameter have very low polymorphism (7-15%). The length of the petiole and the number of fruits in the corymb in samples from Sakhalin has an increased variation (31.4% and 25.5%, respectively), while in samples from Moscow, these indicators are medium (19.2%) and low (14.3%) polymorphism. Analysis of variance revealed a significant influence of the region of growth on the leaf length (the share of the influence of the conditions of the region is 71%), the length of the leaf blade (56%), the maximum width of the leaf (68%), the petiole length (28%), fruit weight (77%), fruit length (81%), fruit diameter (54%). By comparing pairwise differences with the least significant difference (LSD05), it was found that the samples from Sakhalin have significantly greater leaf length, leaf blade length, petiole length, while significantly less than the maximum leaf width, fruit weight, fruit length and diameter, as well as the number fruit in a shield.