Variabilité phénotypique de quelques populations de Pourpier (Portulaca oleracea L.) en Tunisie

Abstract

The phenotypic diversity of four purslane populations, one was grown in green house and three are spontaneous, was estimated by the analyses of 19 morphological characters. The discriminante (DISC) analyse performed on the chosen characters has shown a strong interpopulation heterogeneity as well as between the cultivated population and the spontaneous one in one hand, as between the spontaneous populations in the other hand. This analyse has shown the presence of two varieties: Portulaca oleracea subsp. sylvestris (DC.) Celak., distinguished by its prostate, reddish and fleshy stems, and Portulaca oleracea subsp. sativa (Haw.) Celak., characterized by its taller upright growth habit and larger leaves and seeds. This results suggest large differences between the cultivated and the spontaneous plant as a consequence of different soil, temperature and nutrition conditions under green house, but also genetic diversity is expected among some spontaneous populations. © 2004, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.