Variation for fruit morphological characteristics in a Capsicum chinense Jacq. germplasm collection

Abstract

Mature fruit of 330 accessions of Capsicum chinense Jacq. from the USDA/ARS Capsicum germplasm collection were characterized for fruit length, width, weight, and color. Mean fruit length was determined to be 47 mm with a range from 7.9 mm to 113.7 mm. Mean fruit width was 21.17 mm with a range of 6.18 mm to 40.0 mm. Mean fruit weight was 6.31 g with a range of 0.18 g to 22.7 g. Distributions of all characteristics were positively skewed. Distributions of fruit length, fruit weight, and fruit length/width failed the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for normality. The distribution for fruit width was normal. Ninety-two percent of the accessions examined were elongate. Mature fruit colors included red, orange, yellow, brown (chocolate), and cream. The germplasm collection contained primarily pendent larger-fruited cultivated forms of the species, but also contained upright small-fruited primitive and semipendent transitional forms. These data define the variability for mature fruit characteristics within this germplasm collection and provide a baseline against which future introductions/acquisitions can be compared. Additional sampling of the gene pool might be expected to substantially enhance the genetic variability within the primitive forms of this species.