The new earliest cultivar of cornelian cherry (Cornus mas L.)

Abstract

The fruits of cornelian cherry (Cornus mas L.) have long been eaten and used for medicinal purposes. During the long history of their use, many cultivars have been created with a wide range of shapes, sizes, colors, biochemical composition, and fruit ripening dates, allowing the planting of the cornelian cherry in different geographical locations and a wide range of environmental conditions. The M.M. Gryshko National Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine) has an extensive collection of C. mas cultivars, which differ in many respects, including the time of fruit ripening. Recently a new cultivar, ‘Vytivka Svitlany’, marked by a very early ripening time, has been bred. The fruits of cultivar ‘Vytivka Svitlany’ are red or dark red, oval and more or less elongated, cut off at the top and slightly concave, shiny, juicy, sweet-sour, and slightly tart, with a delicate aroma. After full ripening, the fruits crumble quickly. They are deliciously fresh and suitable for processing in the food industry. In the present paper, the morphological features and biometric characteristics of the fruits of the new cultivar in comparison with other early-ripening cultivars (red-fruited ‘Olena’ and yellow-fruited ‘Alyosha’), as well as the principal biochemical composition of the fruits and its phenological phases for the seasonal development in 2021 according to BBCH scale are represented.