Morphological and chemical composition characteristics of cactus pear accessions under west Asian conditions

Abstract

The objective of this study is to assess the performance of 33 cactus pear accessions planted in Mushaqqar research station in Jordan using morphological and chemical composition characteristics. The trial was set in complete randomized block design with three replications (plants). Data of morphological and chemical composition characteristics were subjected to general liner model (GLM) procedure, hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis (PCA). our results revealed a very high level of morphological and nutritional composition variability among cactus pear accessions that will be very useful for utilizing programs. However, future studies using molecular markers could further improve these results.