Identification of superior jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.) genotypes based on morphological and fruit characterizations

Jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.) is of great importance due to its medicinal properties and nutritional value. The current investigation was carried out to assess phenotypic variation of naturally grown accessions of this species. The accessions investigated exhibited meaningful variabilities based on the recorded characters. Fruit fresh weight ranged from 0.36 to 3.83 g with an average of 1.16, fruit dry weight varied from 0.21 to 3.04 g with an average of 0.80, and fruit flesh thickness varied from 1.24 to 8.51 mm. Skin color showed large variabilities among the accessions, including maroon‐yellow, light maroon, maroon, dark maroon, light brown, brown, dark brown, and maroon‐crimson. Principal component analysis (PCA) determined the characters influencing the most variation among the accessions. Cluster analysis performed with the Euclidean distance and Ward's method divided the accessions into two main clusters. The present findings provided essential data about the morphological traits of Z. jujube that can be used for the selection of superior genotypes and development of the fruit processing industry. Besides, the available results can be useful in designing conservation strategies and breeding of Z. jujube.