Evaluation of Morphologic morphologic Diversity diversity in Marmareh (Prunus incana) Populations populations in Iran

Iran is one of the most important diversity centers for plant species, and of the origins of subgenus Cerasus, such that nine wild species of this subgenus are found in Iran. Marmareh (Prunus incana Pall.) is a native plant of north-west temperate regions of Iran, belonging to this subgenus. In this study, nineteen morphological traits were used to evaluate genetic diversity of five natural populations of Marmareh. Results showed that the tallest trees were in accessions of Ahar population and the shortest trees in Tabriz population. Results of simple correlation analysis showed significant positive or negative correlations among some important traits such as tree height, leaf area, leaf serration, fruit and stone weight, length and diameter. In addition, factor analysis categorized effective characters within the first three factors. The factors explained 91.70% of total variance. Characters such as leaf area, leaf blade length and width, petiole length, fruit and stone weight, fruit length and diameter and stone volume contributed in the main factors. Cluster analysis was performed using the first three factors and clearly discriminated P. incana wild populations from other Prunus species, such that in distance of 25 sweet and sour cherry accessions were separated from P. incana and mahaleb accessions. Since the mahaleb accession was intermediate in the traits of the first main factor, it was separated from sweet and sour cherry.