Articles
Seeking the ‘Esterhazy II’ historic walnut genotype
Article number
1439_61
Pages
459 – 466
Language
English
Abstract
The historic walnut (Juglans regia L.) genotype called ‘Esterhazy II’ was well-known in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy during the 18th and 19th centuries and it can still be found in the German-speaking countries and in the small orchards today.
Unfortunately, nowadays vegetative propagated progenies of the original ‘Esterhazy II’ are not available anymore around the world, because the walnut grafting started later than this genotype had become well-known.
Despite the fact that various accessions with ‘Esterhazy II’-“blood” are available, it is difficult to determine which one can be considered true or the most similar to the true-to-type one.
In this paper phenological and nut morphological characteristics of an ‘Esterhazy II’ specimen, planted in a Hungarian gene bank, were compared to the cultivars ‘Milotai 10’ and ‘Chandler’. Examined characteristics were: budbreak, blossom time, type of dichogamy, ripening time, nut and kernel features.
An additional SSR fingerprinting was used in order to identify identical genotypes and to demonstrate the relatedness of the analyzed ‘Esterhazy II’ genotype to the other Hungarian walnut cultivars.
It can be concluded, that under the name ‘Esterhazy II’ several different genotypes can be observed.
All the checked characteristics except budbreak fitted well with the previous descriptions.
Our results confirmed that the examined ‘Esterhazy II’ genotype shows high similarity to the “original” ‘Esterhazy II’ described in the literature.
Unfortunately, nowadays vegetative propagated progenies of the original ‘Esterhazy II’ are not available anymore around the world, because the walnut grafting started later than this genotype had become well-known.
Despite the fact that various accessions with ‘Esterhazy II’-“blood” are available, it is difficult to determine which one can be considered true or the most similar to the true-to-type one.
In this paper phenological and nut morphological characteristics of an ‘Esterhazy II’ specimen, planted in a Hungarian gene bank, were compared to the cultivars ‘Milotai 10’ and ‘Chandler’. Examined characteristics were: budbreak, blossom time, type of dichogamy, ripening time, nut and kernel features.
An additional SSR fingerprinting was used in order to identify identical genotypes and to demonstrate the relatedness of the analyzed ‘Esterhazy II’ genotype to the other Hungarian walnut cultivars.
It can be concluded, that under the name ‘Esterhazy II’ several different genotypes can be observed.
All the checked characteristics except budbreak fitted well with the previous descriptions.
Our results confirmed that the examined ‘Esterhazy II’ genotype shows high similarity to the “original” ‘Esterhazy II’ described in the literature.
Authors
G. Bujdosó, V. Varjas, K. Cseke
Keywords
field observation, old cultivar, Hungary, Juglans regia, phenology, SSR markers
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