Plant biometrics of malay, rose and water apple

Abstract

Due to the lack of studies comparing Syzygium malaccensis(L) Meer & Perry, Syzygium aqueum Burm.f. and Syzygium jambos (L) Alston Syzygium in relation to the botanical genus Sygygium regarding the physical characteristics, the present research was conducted, aiming at biometrically characterizing each of the three species, as well as comparing them. The fruits were collected from the São Paulo State University (Unesp), School of Agricultural and Veterinarian Sciences, Jaboticabal. Syzygium plants were used for the evaluation of: fruit and seed masses (g); width and length of leaves (cm) and of seeds (cm); percentage of fruit pulp; length of leaf petiole (cm); and leaf area (cm2). Fifty fruits, leaves and seeds of each species were used, with 5 replicates of 10 samples each and the data were submitted to descriptive statistical analysis and organized into frequency tables. For comparative purposes among the species, a blocks randomized design was adopted, being analyzed by the Tukey Test at 5% of probability. The malay and water apple present fruits with high yield of pulp. The fruit of the malay apple are light, with narrow diameter, medium length, broad seeds, narrow and small leaves, with small leaf area. The rose apple fruit present medium mass, width and length, with broad seeds, narrow leaves, medium length and small leaf area. The water apple fruit are light, broad, long, without seeds, with broad leaves, long and having medium leaf area. Comparing the three species of Syzygium studied, it can be concluded that the fruit of malay apple are the largest, but the highest percentage of pulp is found in the fruit of the water apple, due to the absence of seeds.