Variabilidad en el fruto y semillas de zapallo Cucurbita moschata Duch. y Cucurbita argyrosperma subsp. sororia L.H. Bailey Merrick & D.M. Bates

Abstract

The cucurbits presents one range of variants of color in the seed: from white to brown, you may have evolutionary signicance and geographical. Variability was evaluated in 295 seed Cucurbita moschata Duch introductions and 99 of Cucurbita argyrosperma subsp. sororia, all from open-pollinated seeds. The cluster analysis revealed 11 groups for each of the species, which expressed high variability between and within introductions for the characters under study: percentage of seed ether extract (EE), seed weight per fruit (SWPF) and number of fruits per plant (NFP). In C. moschata, two groups ( 5 and 9) stood out for the highest averages for yield per plant (PPL ), seed weight per fruit ( PSPF ) and ether extract per plant ( EEPP ) , with coefcients of variation ( CV ) between 52% and 93 % . In C. argyrosperma subsp. sororia, same characters stood out to groups 5 and 11, with a CV between 53 and 79 %. High coefcients of variation showed wide variability between and within introductions to the characters of agronomic and agro industrial importance. Given the cluster analysis and the weighted selection index (PSI) six introductions of each species was selected.