The characterizations have been performed in germplasm collections to generate information about the description and classification of collected materials, to discriminate more important characters and, mainly, to subsidize genetic breeding program by identifying desirable individuals as well as quantifying the available diversity. This study aimed to characterize and quantify the genetic divergence among accessions of Passiflora edulis and P. cincinnata based on physical and chemical characteristics of the fruits. The genetic material consisted of six accessions from the Germoplasm bank of UNESP in Jaboticabal. The fruits were evaluated with respect to the following physical characteristics: weight, length and fruit diameter, rind thickness, seed number and juice yield; and chemical: total soluble solids contents and total acidity. The six accessions differed with respect to all traits, indicating the presence of genetic variability and hence the possibility of obtaining genetic gains with selection of superior genotypes. The genetic diversity among the accessions was estimated by Tocher's grouping method, and used Mahalanobis' distance as a measure of dissimilarity, forming two groups. The estimates of higher positive genetic correlations associated with the juice, were with the number of seeds / fruit, fruit diameter, fruit length and fruit weight. The method of Singh, used to estimate the relative contribution of each character in the expression of genetic divergence among the six accessions, indicated that the size of the fruit and juice yield were the characteristics that contributed most, and total acidity showed a least contribution.
Passiflora; dissimilarity; fruit characters
