Some Vegetative and Reproductive Characters of Japanese Apricot (Prunus mume Sieb. et. Zuce) varieties Ping Ting and Jen Toa

Abstract

Some characteristics of two Japanese apricot varieties, Ping Ting and Jen Toa, growing at the Royal Ang Khang station, Chiang Mai Province were investigated. The study was concentrated on vegetative characters which were width, length of leaves, length of petioles and leaf area. The reproductive characters included width, length and number of petals, number of sepals, number of anthers, length of style and percent of pollen viability .The fruit characters studied were weight, volume, width, length and drupe thickness, percent total soluble solids, percent total acid, width and length of seeds, seed weight and and seed thickness. The study showed that Ping Ting variety had shorter leaves , wider and longer petals that Jen Toa variety. This can be used to identify the variety. But there was no difference in the number of petals and sepals, length of pistils, number of anthers and percent viable pollen. As for the fruits, the Ping Ting variety had bigger size, heavier and more fruit thickness than the Jen Toa variety, Seed sizes were not different. The characters which were shown to be different between the two varieties were percent total soluble solid and percent total acidity which were higher in the Jen Toa variety.