MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION WITHIN COLLECTIONS OF MOROCCAN ALMOND CLONES AND MEDITERRANEAN AND NORTH-AMERICAN CULTIVARS

Cultivated almonds (Prunus dulcis (Miller) D.A. Webb) in Morocco are s till propagated from seeds by farmers to overcome transplant failure o f grafted trees. Almond collections in southern Morocco conducted sinc e 1975 have resulted in the selection of clones planted at 3 experimen tal stations. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to compare k ernel, nut, leaf, and growth habit characteristics among 67 selected M oroccan clones and 14 introduced cultivars. Clustering of clones from similar countries and collection areas would suggest the existence of different almond populations. The Moroccan clones did not cluster sepa rately from the foreign cultivars. Three Moroccan clones had exception ally large nuts and kernels while 7 selections had high yield potentia l due to high spur density. Moroccan selections tended to be character ized by small leaves in comparison to foreign cultivars. No evidence w as found to suggest the existence of separate populations within the M oroccan almond germplasm.