Genetic evaluation of cultivated garlic germplasm (Allium sativum L. and A. ampeloprasum L.)

Garlic cultivated in rural farms of South Italy is often a heterogeneous clone population, which can comprise different cytotypes. A collection of cultivated garlic from the University of Basilicata gene-bank, was evaluated for ploidy level, and 16 different morphological traits. Out of50 accessions, 7 were hexaploids (Allium ampeloprasum L.) and43 diploids (Allium sativum L.). Significant differences in yield were observed within and between ploidy levels. The heritable traits most correlated with yield were plant height (h² = 0.62) within diploid types and neck diameter (h² = 0.75) within hexaploids. Discriminant analysis did show that four characters (leaf basal width, total n^° of leaves, clove diameter and neck height) were able to correctly discriminate all germ plasm accessions between the two species. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.