Variability in leaf and fruit morphology and in fruit composition of chestnuts (Castanea sativa Mill.) in the Nazilli region of Turkey

The aim of this study is to characterize 10 European chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) accessions which were selected among 80 accessions at the end of a selection study in Nazilli in Turkey. During the harvest periods in 2001, 2002 and 2003, European chestnut accessions were examined. Nineteen morphological, pomological and biochemical characters were used. Significant genotypexyear interaction were found for all traits but one. Multivariate methods, including cluster and principal component analysis were performed to characterize the accessions. The first five principal components account for 86.44% of the total variance of all traits, indicating a high degree of correlation among the characteristics analyzed. High level of phenotypic proximity was found between the accessions N-20-2 and N-5-1 based on pomological, morphological and biochemical characteristics.