MORPHOLOGICAL VARIABILITY OF CASHEWS FROM THE BRAZILIAN SAVANNAH

The cashew germplasm bank at Embrapa contains accessions collected in Brazil, including some accessions from the savannah.
This is a biome with great bio-diversity, typically represented by small, tortuous trees.
This rich collection is not yet fully characterized, a fact that complicates the use of this plant material in breeding programs.
The goal of this work was to characterize 46 accessions of cashew collected in the savannah.
Morphological characterization was performed during 2007 to 2009. Among the A. occidentale accessions, 60% had a tall canopy and an upright/open tree shape, 50% had a rounded peduncle, 75% had an orange peduncle, 80% had reddish green young leaves, 80% had green mature leaves, 60% had obovate and brittle leaves while 40% instead had oval and leathery leaves.
Among the A. othonianum accessions, 66% had a semi-tall canopy, 54% had an upright and compact tree shape while 41% instead had an upright and open tree shape, 66% had reddish green young leaves, 79% had green mature leaves, 96% had obovate leaves, and 75% had leathery leaves.
The majority of the A. humile accessions consisted of dwarf trees with a spreading tree shape, they had reddish green young leaves, and green and leathery adult leaves.
Symptoms of anthracnose and black mold were observed for all species.
The species showed differences for all characters evaluated and also a high variability within species.

XXVIII International Horticultural Congress on Science and Horticulture for People (IHC2010): III International Symposium on Plant Genetic Resources

A.C.R. Castro, O.V. Sobreira Júnior, P.N. Bordallo, K.G.S. Oliveira , C.F. Bezerra

Anacardium humile, Anacardium occidentale, Anacardium othonianum, characterization, germplasm

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2011.918.114