Investigation On Main Characteristics Of ’Shenwan’ Pineapple And Selection Of Excellent Individuals

Pineapples produced from Shenwan town in Zhongshan City are called‘Shenwan’(shortened from ‘Shenwan pineapple’),which is an excellent local variety in China.However,after more then 100 years of cultivation,‘Shenwan’ has evolved into a mixed cultivated population and its economic characteristics are quite different,and the good and the bad are intermingled.Its germplasm resources,morphological characters and economic characters are still lack of research.In this paper,the germplasm resources,botanical characters and economic characters of ’Shenwan’ were investigated detailedly,and the preliminary study on the selection of excellent individuals was also carried out.Based on the investigation,the fruit and plant were collected from Shenwan town.Then the root,stem,leaf,flower,fruit and other major components of the fruit were analyzed in detail.According to the results,the common characteristics were only one crown,golden flesh,low cellulose content.The quality traits such as soluble sugar in flesh(9.01 %),total soluble solid(15.50 %),titratable acid(4.73 mg / g)and vitamin C(40.44 mg / 100g)were relatively stable with no significant difference and good quality.However,other characters were rich in variation,and the fruit shape can be divided into 4 types: long columnar,ellipsoidal,spherical and oblate.The plant height ranged from 35.5 to 110.89 cm,and the average height is 61.48 cm,which can be divided into 3 types: the short(< 60.0 cm),the middle(60.0 ~ 90.0 cm)and the high(> 90.0 cm).The number of leaves per individual ranged from 20 to 50,and the average is 38.47,which can be divided into 3 types: the more(> 40),the medium(30 ~ 40),the less(< 30).The weight of single fruit ranged from265.60 to 1089.10 g,with an average of 546.09 g.The depth of the eye of its fruitlet was0.61 ~ 1.60 cm,with an average of 1.06 cm,which could be divided into 3 types: the deepest(> 1.31 cm),the deeper(0.90 ~ 1.30 cm)and the shallower(< 0.90 cm).The flowering period varied from 10 days to 25 days.The results of simple correlation analysis of ’Shenwan’ characters by using the Pearson correlation coefficient method of SPSS were as follows.Fruit shape index and the total number of fruitlet showe a very significant positive correlation,the correlation coefficient of 0.906.There were significant positive correlations among fruit weight and fruit height0.988,fruit diameter(0.942),fruit shape index(0.917)and total number of fruitlet(0.939).The depth of the eye of fruitlet and fruit size were positively correlated,the depth and fruit height,fruit weight correlation coefficient was 0.603 and 0.636.According to the fruit shape index,the fruit shape of ’Shenwan’ pineapple can be divided into 4 types,long columnar,(fruit shape index ≥ 1.26,weight 827.63 g),ellipsoidal(1.08 ~1.26,weight 655.31 g),spherical(0.90 ~ 1.08,weight 376.90 g)and oblate(fruit shape index ≤ 0.90,weight 193.54g).The results of Duncan analysis of fruit weight showed significant differences among the 4 types.The average values were 827.63 g,655.31 g,376.90 g and 193.54 g.There were significant differences in the total number of fruitlet among the 4 types,and the numbers were 118,98,63 and 44,respectively.But there was no significant difference in sugar content,vitamin C content and water content among each type.Accroding to the selection criteria,5 excellent individuals were screened out.The fruit weights of them were 1003.92 g,804.04 g,700.69 g,1024.60 g and 1037.75 g,among which 3fruits were long columnar and 2 were ellipsoids.