Phenotypic Diversity of Cultivated Mangoes in Oman

R.A. Al-Yahyai1,a, A.M. Al-Subhi1, S. Al-Khanjari2 and Z. Al-Farei1 1 Department of Crop Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Al-Khoud, Oman 2 University of Nizwa, Nizwa, Oman Keywords: Mangifera indica, biodiversity, cultivars, fruit crops, tropical fruits, morphological characteristics Abstract Mango is a major fruit crop of the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. There are numerous mango cultivars being cultivated around the world including in the southern Arabian Peninsula. The diversity of mango cultivars in Oman has not been studied and the majority of mango trees remain unidentified. We investigated the morphological diversity of mango cultivars grown in Oman. Quantitative and qualitative characteristics of imported mango cultivars, locally grown cultivars, and surveyed unknown mango cultivars were compared using multivariate analysis and analysis of variance. Shanon-Weaver diversity index (H) showed large phenotypic diversity in mangoes cultivated in Oman, particularly in the quantitative characteristics of the fruits. Identification of unknown cultivars was possible using UPGMA pairwise-comparison of the phenotypic characteristics with that of known cultivars. Mango cultivars from the same region tended to group together. Results from this study will help further studies on the biodiversity of mangoes in Oman and to develop the appropriate breeding program for improving mango cultivars in arid regions. INTRODUCTION Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is a tropical fruit crop that belongs to the family Anacardiaceae. Based on their apomictic characteristics, mango has been divided into polyembryonic, South-east Asian type, and monoembryonic, Indian type (Mukherjee and Litz, 2009). The genus Mangifera contains 70 species that are common to tropical Asia (Viruel et al., 2005). Mango is one of the most diverse fruit crops in cultivation and has over a thousand cultivars. These cultivars are grown throughout the tropics and subtropics, including southern Europe. India is the largest producer of mangoes, producing approximately 13 million tons in 2009 (FAOSTAT, 2011) which is around 40% of the worlds mango production. There are over 500 mango cultivars in India alone that vary greatly in their canopy vegetative and reproductive characteristics, production season, yield, fruit physical and chemical quality attributes (Bally, 2006). Wild mango cultivars can still be found along the Himalayan foothills that stretch from Iran through India and Pakistan to Bangladesh. Modern selection and breeding has taken place in Florida, USA, from where the major commercial cultivars, such as Haden and Tommy Atkins, have originated (Viruel et al., 2005). However, in developing countries, mango production has been based on the cultivation of a mixture of local and imported cultivars. The ancient trade routes between the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian Subcontinent have facilitated the exchange of various types of fruit crops that have eventually spread to the rest of Africa, Western Asia and Europe (Hammer et al., 2009). Mango is one of the main fruit crops in Oman and is the third largest in production quantity after date palm and banana. Oman production of mango was 6,500 tons from 1,237 ha in 2009 (FAOSTAT, 2011), largely from traditional farms. The large diversity of mangoes cultivated in Oman has helped to limit the extent of the damage caused by the recent outbreak of Sudden decline disease that wiped out up to 60% of mango trees in Oman (Al Adawi et al., 2006; Al-Subhi et al., 2006; Deadman et al., 2007). The remaining tree stands are thought to have tolerated the

alyahyai@squ.edu.om

Proc. 2nd All Africa Horticulture Congress Eds.: K. Hannweg and M. Penter Acta Hort. 1007, ISHS 2013

267

outbreak and showed no symptoms. The tolerance or resistance to disease has led to a greater interest in studying the diversity of mangoes in Oman to assess the characteristics of locally grown mango cultivars and rootstocks (Deadman et al., 2007). Although a general description of many mango cultivars exists (Knight et al., 2010), no information is available on the genetic diversity or germplasm characterization of cultivated mangoes in Oman. Fruit tree diversity can be simply observed using morphological characters, while the basis is due to their genetic makeup (exon region) (Fitmawatai et al., 2010; Rodrguez et al., 2011). The objective of this study was to evaluate phenotypic diversity of mango cultivars in Oman and to relate the open-pollinated selections with the known cultivars in the country. This study will serve as the starting point to characterize mangoes grown in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula. MATERIALS AND METHODS Mango tree and fruit phenotypic characteristics were used to determine the diversity of cultivated mango in Oman following UPOV guidelines (UPOV, 1987) and IBPGR descriptors for mango (IBPGR, 1989). Tree and fruit qualitative and quantitative attributes of 10 local and 16 imported mango cultivars were used to carry out preliminary biodiversity analysis using an index of mango cultivars in Oman (Al-Jabri, 2008). Local and imported cultivars that are commonly cultivated in Oman were used in this study (Table 1). Additionally, a survey of mango cultivars was carried out in three mangogrowing regions of Oman, viz., South Al-Batinah (Musanaa), Muscat (Seeb) and the Interior (Nizwa), and are listed in Table 2. Information characterizing tree canopy, young and fully developed leaves, flowers and inflorescence, fruit, stone and seed were gathered from 29 trees during the fruiting season that extends from May-July. Shannon-Weaver biodiversity index (H) was used to assess phenotypic variability of the mango cultivars using NTSYS software (Shannon and Weaver, 1949; Rohlf, 2002). Similarity-dissimilarity matrices were computed with Jaccards coefficient (Sneath and Sokal, 1973). A dendogram of all tree qualitative and quantitative characteristics was plotted using PAST software (Hammer et al., 2001). Further analysis of variance was done among groups for the cultivars, surveyed samples and both combined to test the validity of the quantitative characteristics distribution using SAS software (SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, North Carolina, USA) and mean separation was done using Duncans Multiple Range Test, P=0.05. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Quantitative Characteristics of Local and Imported Mango Cultivars in Oman Identified mango cultivars comprising local and imported mango cultivars (Table 1) were used as the baseline for determining the biodiversity of mango in Oman. Quantitative characteristics reported by Al-Jabri (2008) showed that local cultivars were shorter in mature fruit length and also had lower fruit mass (Table 3). Other characteristics including fruit width and stone characteristics were not significant. The generally inferior yield and quality of local cultivars has resulted in continuous introduction of many cultivars, mainly from the Indian Subcontinent, that are characterized by 36% larger fruit weight. Lower yield of local cultivars can be attributed to their origin as seedlings without any breeding selection and also to the lack of proper tree management such as grafting, pruning and fruit thinning. The low number (10) of characterized local cultivars is a fraction of the large numbers of cultivated mango trees that remain unidentified or un-described. Diversity of Mangoes Based on Qualitative Characteristics Qualitative indicators that are common among sampled mango trees and the identified cultivars were used to determine the extent of mango diversity (Table 4). Sampled trees had lower diversity H-index compared to known cultivars that exceeded 70% in all characteristics. Both sampled and known cultivars had monoembryonic seeds, 268

i.e., Indian types, and hence the low H-Index (0.00 and 0.24 respectively). H-Index of all trees, samples and cultivars, indicated a high diversity in all characteristics except polyembryony (Table 4). Diversity of Mangoes Based on Quantitative Characteristics Quantitative indicators for sampled mango trees and cultivars showed more diversity among the samples (0.80) compared to the cultivars (0.72) (Table 5). In contrast to the qualitative traits, the fruit and stone quantitative characteristics of the mango samples had higher H-Index compared to local cultivars except in fruit and stone weight. High H-Index of fruit weight in sampled mango trees indicated that there were large variations among sampled trees from three regions. This also suggests that mango cultivation is comprised of mixed cultivars, typical of traditional mango orchards in Oman. Despite the predominantly small-sized farms in Oman, traditional fruit farms have generally more diversity in both species and cultivars, as is the case for date palm (AlYahyai and Al-Khanjary, 2008). Relationships among Cultivated Mangoes in Oman 1. Mango Cultivars. Based on qualitative and quantitative phenotypic characteristics of mango trees and fruits of known cultivars, mango can be divided into six groups (Fig. 1). The cultivar Tenneru (T) was distinct (cluster 1) from all other cultivars because of its greater fruit weight and size. The phylogenetic tree showed that mango cultivars were largely distributed into local and imported cultivars. Cluster 3 was comprised of local cultivars, whereas cluster 2, 4, 5 and 6 grouped imported cultivars (except for the local cultivars Alkhokh (K) in 2 and Mokhadrani (MO) in cluster 6. Given all the characteristics, imported cultivars had distinctive characteristics that differed from local cultivars, which supported the point discussed earlier about the better yield and fruit quality of imported cultivars. Similar results were reported for wheat landraces in Oman that were separated into clusters based on their geographical origin using molecular (Zhang et al., 2006) and morphological (Al Khanjari et al., 2008) characterization. For the Indian cultivars, Alphonso (AL) and Neelum (N), the similarity grouping based on quantitative and qualitative data reported were similar to that of Eiadthong et al. (1999) using molecular analysis. Alphonso (AL) and Langra (L) have different characteristics as described by Knight et al. (2010), and supported by our results, placing them into two separate groups (Fig. 1). 2. Sampled Mango Trees. Mango trees sampled during this study showed a wide range of diversity as they were grouped into 8 clusters (Fig. 2). Two of the surveyed samples (S1 and S14) were distinct from all other trees, whereas N1 and N2 in cluster 6 were distinctive perhaps due to their cultivation in a separate locality (Nizwa). This was predicted since mango can be distinctly grouped based on geographical origin and polyembryony (Viruel et al., 2005). The remaining clusters contained from 3 to 7 trees per cluster. 3. Combined Sampled and Cultivated Mangoes. When data from both identified cultivars and sampled trees was combined and analyzed, many of the surveyed trees joined clusters with identified mango cultivars (Fig. 3). The exceptions to this were clusters 3 and 7 which had identified cultivars only and cluster 8 with sampled trees only, the two cultivars Tenneru (T) in cluster 1 and Amoriah (A) in cluster 10. Using known characteristics of identified cultivars such as Zingbariahmar (ZA) in cluster 6 may help identify several unknown trees, based solely on their similarity. However, an unknown tree (S14) may be placed among four distinct cultivars in cluster 4. Thus, caution should be used when trying to associate unknown mango trees to known cultivars based on their phenotypic characteristics alone. Quantitative Characteristics for Mango Diversity Assessment Because much of the diversity in both known cultivars and unknown sampled mango trees is largely attributed to quantitative characteristics, differences among groups 269

(of clusters) in Figures 1-3 were analyzed for mean differences of these characteristics. Mean separation of groups showed that group 1 [Tenneru (T)] had the greatest fruit mass and dimensions, whereas groups 2, 3 and 6 were the lowest (Table 6). Cultivars in groups 4 and 5 had moderate fruit size and fruit weight. Identification of the cultivars and then testing the reasons that underline their grouping is a novel idea as it will facilitate the selection of superior types and identification and elimination of inferior cultivars. This perhaps is more meaningful in fruit breeding and selection than sorting characteristics using principle component analysis (PCA) alone. Similarly, Table 7 shows the quantitative characteristics of sampled trees as grouped in Figure 2. Fruit dimensions and fruit weight contributed the most to tree groupings. For example, fruit weight of cluster 1 is significantly larger than cluster 6 and cluster 3, which had the lowest fruit weight, almost one third of that of trees in cluster 2. Fruit characteristics showed that imported mango cultivars were superior to local cultivars in mature fruit length but more importantly in fruit weight (Table 4). Other characteristics were not significantly different, but arithmetic mean indicated larger stone weight and size for local cultivars that corresponded with lower fruit weight, which perhaps is another reason for growers to continuously introducing unknown and new cultivars. The results from this study showed a high level of biodiversity of mango cultivars in Oman with an average H=0.74 for qualitative characteristics (Table 4) and H=0.72 for quantitative characteristics (Table 5) of the fruit. The diversity index (H) of the quantitative characteristics based on the physical dimensions of the fruit and seed was lower than that for fruit and stone weight (Table 5). Diversity based on the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of mango cultivars in Oman were similar with H averaging 0.74 and 0.72, respectively, with the lowest being in polyembryony (H=0.24) (Tables 4 and 5). Therefore, the high diversity of mango cultivars in Oman is perhaps due to the inherited differences among these cultivars that are monoembryonic and of an Indian origin. The data also indicated that selected phenotypic characteristics of mangoes can reliably be used to relate unknown cultivars to those that have been characterized and identified. Mango cultivars were also grouped based on their native habitat and cultivation zone as can be seen in the dendograms in this study (Figs. 1-3). Similar groupings of mangoes were reported using morphological and biochemical markers (Rajwana et al., 2011), as well as molecular markers (Eiadthong et al., 1999). CONCLUSIONS There are 36 recorded mango cultivars in Oman and numerous others remain unidentified. This study attempted to assess the extent of biodiversity of mangoes in Oman using data for identified and randomly sampled trees. Results indicated that there is a large diversity of mangoes in Oman in both local and imported cultivars. Qualitative and quantitative characteristics showed a great deal of biodiversity in the phenotypical attributes of Omani mangoes. The highest diversity is in the shape of the fully developed leaf as well as in fruit and stone weights. Grouping of cultivars based on their cultivation zone indicated an influence of the growing conditions on the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the fruit. The data presented here will aid in the identification of mango cultivars using other tools such as molecular and chemical characterization. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors acknowledge the financial support of Sultan Qaboos University (SQU). The support of Harith Al-Nabhani and Abdulbaqi Al-Raeesi from the Agricultural Experiment Station (SQU) during the sample collection and identification of mango cultivars is highly appreciated. We thank Prof. Michal Deadman for reviewing and commenting on this manuscript and Aysha Al-Farsi for helping with the data analysis.

270

Literature Cited Al Adawi, A.O., Deadman, M.L., Al Rawahi, A.K., Al Maqbali, Y.M., Al Jahwari, A.A., Al Saadi, B.A., Al Amri, I.S. and Wingfield, M.J. 2006. Aetiology and causal agents of mango sudden decline disease in the Sultanate of Oman. European Journal of Plant Pathology 116:247-254. Al-Jabri, M.H. 2008. Mango Production and Cultivation in the Sultanate of Oman. Ministry of Agriculture, Muscat, Oman. Al Khanjari, S., Filatenko, A.A., Hammer, K. and Buerkert, A. 2008. Morphological spike diversity of Omani wheat. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 55:11851195. Al Subhi, A.M., Al Adawi, A.O., vanWyk, M., Deadman, M.L. and Wingfield, M.J. 2006. Ceratocystis omanensis, a new species from diseased mango trees in Oman. Mycological Research 110:237-245. Al-Yahyai, R. and Al-Khanjary, S. 2008. Biodiversity of date palm in the Sultanate of Oman. African Journal of Agricultural Research 3(6):389-395. Bally, I.S.E. 2006. Mangifera indica (mango), ver. 3.1. In: C.R. Elevitch (ed.), Species Profiles for Pacific Island Agroforestry. Permanent Agriculture Resources (PAR), Hlualoa, Hawaii. http://www.traditionaltree.org. Deadman, M.L., Al Adawi, A., Al-Yahyai, R. and Wingfield, M.J. 2007. Ceratocystis wilt of mango in Oman. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Prospects of Horticultural Industry in Pakistan, 28-30 March 2007, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan. p.191-194. Eiadthong, W., Yonemori, K., Sugiura, A., Utsunomiya, N. and Subhadrabandhu, S. 1999. Identification of mango cultivars of Thailand and evaluation of their genetic variation using the amplified fragments by simple sequence repeat(SSR) anchored primers. Scientia Horticulturae 82:57-66. FAOSTAT. 2011. Statistics Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. http://faostat.fao.org, accessed 10 Nov. 2011. Fitmawati, A. Hartana and Purwoko, B.S. 2010. Diversity of Indonesian mango (mangifera indica) cultivars based on morphological and RAPD markers. Sabrao Journal of Breeding and Genetics 42(2):84-95. Hammer, O., Harper, D.A.T. and Ryan, P.D. 2001. PAST: Paleontological statistics software package for education and data analysis. Paleontologia Electronica 4(1):9. Hammer, K., Gebauer, J., Al Khanjari, S. and Buerkert, A. 2009. Oman at the cross-roads of inter-regional exchange of cultivated plants. Genet. Resour. Crop Evol. 56:547-560. IBPGR. 1989. Descriptors for Mango. International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR), Rome, Italy. Knight, R.J., Campbell, R.J. and Maguire, I. 2010. Important mango cultivars and their descriptors. p.42-66. In: R. Litz (ed.), The Mango Botany, Production and Uses (2nd ed). CABI, USA. Mukherjee, S.K. and Litz, R.E. 2009. Introduction: botany and importance. p.1-18. In: R.E. Litz (ed.), The Mango Botany, Production and Uses (2nd ed.). CABI, Wallingford, UK. Rajwana, I.A., Khan, I.A., Malik, A.U., Saleem, B.A., Khan, A.S., Ziaf, K., Anwar, R. and Amin, M. 2011. Morphological and biochemical markers for varietal characterization and quality assessment of potential indigenous mango (Mangifera indica) germplasm. Int. J. Agric. Biol. 13:151-158. Rodrguez, N.N., Jimnez, R., Fuentes, V.R., Coto, O., Santiago, L.I., lvarez, A., Capote, M.L., Velsquez, J.B., Puentes, J.L., Vernhes, M., Prieto, E.F., Rivero, D., Sourd, D.G., Blanco, M., Martnez, F. and Matamoros, J.M. 2011. Genetic resources, breeding and avocado crop technologies (Persea americana Mill.) in Cuba. Proceedings VII World Avocado Congress 2011 (Actas VII Congreso Mundial del Aguacate 2011). Cairns, Australia. 5-9 September 2011. Rohlf, F.J. 2002. Numerical taxonomy and multivariate analysis system. NTSYS version 2.11a. Applied Biostatistics Inc. New York, USA. 271

Shannon, C.E. and Weaver, W. 1949. The Mathematical Theory of Communication. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Ilinois, USA. Sneath, P.H.A. and Sokal, R.R. 1973. Numerical Taxonomy. The Principles and Practice of Numerical Classification. W.H. Freeman, San Francisco, USA, p.69-181. UPOV. 1987. Guidelines for the conduct of tests for distinctness, homogeneity and stability: mango (Mangifera indica L.). International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV): TG/112/3. Viruel, M.A., Escribano, P., Barbieri, M., Ferri, M. and Hormaza, J.I. 2005. Fingerprinting, embryo type and geographic differentiation in mango (Mangifera indica L., Anacardiaceae) with microsatellites. Molecular Breeding 15:383-393. Zhang, P., Dreisigacker, S., Buerkert, A., Alkhanjari, S., Melchinger, A.E. and Warburton, M.L. 2006. Genetic diversity and relationships of wheat landraces from Oman investigated with SSR markers. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 00:110.

Tables

Table 1. Major local and imported mango cultivars grown in Oman.

Local mango cultivars Cultivar Distribution (Code) Alhalqoom (H) MCT (Qurayat) Alkhokh (K) MCT (Qurayat) Umalkizan (UK) B (Liwa) Zingbariahmar (ZA) MCT (Qurayat) Oudalmoz (OZ) B (Sohar) Amoriah (A) B (Liwa) Oudalmomnain (OM) B (Sohar) Alkhiliah (KH) B (Liwa) Mokhadrani (MO) B (Saham) Mantakhalthor (MT) B (Liwa) Imported mango cultivars Harvest Cultivar Origin month (Code) Baramasi (B) India May, October Hindibusinarah (HB) Egypt May Alphonso (AL) India June Dashehari (D) India June Langra (L) India June Allumpurbaneshan (AB) India June Imampasand (IP) India June Pairi (P) India June Baneshan (B) India June Cherukarasam (C) India June Tenneru (T) India June Zafran (Z) India June Safedamulgoa (SM) India June Mulgoa (M) India June Banglora (BN) India July Neelum (N) India July MCT = Muscat, B = Al-Batinah. Source: Al-Jabri (2008). Harvest month May May May May May June May July July July

272

Table 2. Regions and codes of farms and trees surveyed in this study. Regions GPS Farms Samples codes coordinates (tree number) MZ (3) MZ1, MZ2, MZ3pm South Al-Batinah, 23.736N MS (3) MS1, MS2, MS3 (Musanaa) 57.599E MSH1, MSH2, MSH3, MSH4, MSH5, MSH (9) MSH6, MSH7, MSH8, MSH9za 23.599N 58.165E 22.935N 57.519E S1 (7) S2 (5) Interior (Nizwa) N (2) S1, S13, S14, S15, S16, S17, S18 S2, S22, S23, S24, S25 N1, N2

Muscat (Seeb)

Table 3. Quantitative fruit characteristics of local and imported mangoes cultivated in Oman. Fruit characteristics Mature fruit length (cm) Mature fruit width (cm) Fruit weight (g) Stone weight (g) Stone length (cm) Stone width (cm) Mango cultivars Imported Local 9.41 a 8.05 b 7.04 a 6.41 a 334.13 a 213.60 b 28.81 a 30.62 a 7.14 a 6.70 a 3.39 a 3.59 a

Table 4. Comparison of the H-Index of the qualitative characteristics for mango samples, cultivars and combined data of both. H-index H-index H-index samples cultivars combined Branches attitude 0.69 0.78 0.74 Fully-developed leaf attitude 0.50 0.93 0.77 Fully-developed leaf tip shape 0.00 0.99 0.78 Ripe fruit skin color 0.99 0.78 0.93 Polyembryony 0.00 0.24 0.13 Sum 2.18 3.72 3.35 Average 0.73 0.74 0.67 Tree and fruit characteristics

273

Table 5. Comparison of the H-Index of the quantitative characteristics for mangoes cultivars and combined data from both. Fruit characteristics Mature fruit length Mature fruit width Fruit weight Stone weight Stone length Stone width Sum Average H-index samples 0.65 0.98 0.81 0.91 0.74 0.74 4.83 0.80 H-index cultivars 0.59 0.62 0.95 0.93 0.70 0.56 4.34 0.72 H-index combined 0.54 0.87 0.84 0.92 0.79 0.56 4.52 0.75

Table 6. Fruit quantitative characteristics of mango cultivars grown in Oman.

Average values for phylogenetic tree clusters for cultivars Fruit characteristics Tree cluster groupy 1z 2 3 4 5 6 Mature fruit length (cm) 17.70 a 7.08 c 8.06 bc 9.92 b 10.20 b 8.73 bc Mature fruit width (cm) 9.70 a 6.12 b 6.61 b 7.58 b 7.43 b 5.73 b Fruit weight (g) 1050.00 a 209.33 c 209.75 c 370.80 b 342.33 b 205.67 c Stone weight (g) 52.50 a 21.42 c 30.73 bc 30.82 bc 36.50 b 25.56 bc Stone length (cm) 14.50 a 5.30 c 6.71 bc 7.46 b 7.70 b 6.97 bc Stone width (cm) 4.50 a 3.37 b 3.56 b 3.38 b 3.57 b 3.10 b
z y

This group contained one cultivar. Based on data clustering in Figure 1.

274

Table 7. Fruit quantitative characteristics of sampled mango trees grown in Oman. Fruit characteristics Average values for phylogenetic tree clusters for mango samples Tree cluster groupy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7z 8z Fully-developed leaf length (cm) 17.50 bc 23.24 a 17.80 bc 17.79 bc 19.77 ab 17.52 bc 17.55 bc 14.04 c Fully-developed leaf width (cm) 4.54 a 5.42 a 5.09 a 4.54 a 4.88 a 4.31 a 4.31 a 4.15 a Mature fruit length (cm) 13.04 a 7.29 b 5.67 b 6.77 b 8.49 b 9.14 b 8.07 b 7.15 b Mature fruit width (cm) 7.64 a 7.57 a 4.57 c 5.87 b 6.64 ab 6.75 ab 6.49 ab 6.26 b Fruit weight (g) 395.28 a 195.36 bc 78.85 c 130.71 bc 200.04 bc 233.87 b 198.51 bc 166.06 bc Stone weight (g) 33.17 a 26.28 ab 15.04 c 23.47 b 24.08 ab 25.29 ab 32.13 ab 25.51 ab Stone length (cm) 11.66 a 5.56 b 4.56 b 5.34 b 6.48 b 7.20 b 6.57 b 5.71 b Stone width (cm) 3.72 a 3.56 ab 2.51 c 3.16 b 3.23 ab 3.21 ab 3.55 ab 3.51 ab Seed length (cm) . 4.96 abc 3.93 c 4.58 abc 4.93 abc 5.84 a 5.49 ab 4.48 bc Seed width (cm) . 2.82 a 2.00 b 2.51 a 2.63 a 2.64 a 2.90 a 2.52 a Seed weight (g) . 16.44 ab 9.51 c 14.11 bc 15.89 b 18.40 ab 21.19 14.0 c
z y

This group contained only one sample tree. Based on data clustering in Figure 2.

275

275

Figures

Fig. 1. Phylogenetic tree of relatedness of mango cultivars in Oman based on qualitative and quantitative phenotypic characteristics using Jaccards coefficient.

Fig. 2. Phylogenetic tree of relatedness of sampled mango trees grown in three regions of Oman based on qualitative and quantitative phenotypic characteristics using Jaccards coefficient. 276

Fig. 3. Phylogenetic tree showing the distribution of mango cultivars in Oman based on qualitative and quantitative phenotypic characteristics using Jaccards coefficient.

277

278