Morphological and Eco-Geographic Variation in Algerian Wild Olives

Abstract

Algerian wild olives can represent an important resource for cultivated olive breeding, since they are characterized by great morphological variability. Moreover, they grow in different bioclimatic environments, including dry and hot climates, making the collections of wild olives a good source of abiotic stress resistance traits. Our study aimed to investigate the morphological diversity of 175 wild olive trees collected in North Algeria along with a wide range of different bioclimatic habitats for studying traits of olive accessions in relation to their different ecogeographical parameters. Wild olive trees were found in five different bioclimates areas spanning from humid to Saharan areas. They showed high variation in all traits, in particular fruit and stone weight, which expressed the highest coefficient of variation, and a high positive correlation between fruit weight/width. Cluster analysis separated the samples into two groups mostly based on fruit and stone size, while no relationship was observed with the area of sampling. Only the Saharan samples showed significantly different foliar and fruit characteristics compared to samples from other bioclimatic areas.