ISHS Acta Horticulturae 182: I International Symposium on Taxonomy of Cultivated Plants
THE IDENTIFICATION OF CACAO CULTIVARS |
| Author: | J.M.M. Engels |
| Abstract:
The existing and widely accepted taxonomic groupings of the cultivated species Theobroma cacao L. are generally based on local populations rather than clones. In the present study the applicability of these conventional classifications was investigated using 294 cacao cultivars (mainly clones). Various multivariate analyses, including cluster and principal component analysis, and simple statistical methods were employed. It was found that the classical groupings into "genetic" and fruit shape classes were meaningful, but, since the majority of the new cultivars are hybrids between two or more of the "genetic" classes and, therefore, could not be properly classified, a new classification based on 10 selected characters has been proposed. The latter facilitates the identification of cacao cultivars, generally clones, in a more unambiguous way. Furthermore, a scattergram of diagramatically presented longitudinal and transversal cacao fruit sections and some other methods are presented to allow for a first rough identification of unknown, duplicate and mislabelled cultivars. | |
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