Morphological Characterization and Phenotypic Diversity Assessment of Mango Selections from Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri Districts of Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

Mango is an important tropical fruit crop with wide phenotypic variability in tree architecture, leaf morphology, fruit quality and seed characters. Farmer-maintained mango trees in traditional orchards and village landscapes represent valuable genetic resources, but many such selections remain undocumented. The present study was undertaken to characterize eight mango selections collected from different villages of Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts of Tamil Nadu, India. The selected accessions were coded as PMi-1 to PMi-8 and evaluated for tree, leaf, fruit, pulp, seed, total soluble solids and yield traits using standard mango descriptor-based methods. Considerable variation was observed among the accessions for tree age, crown shape, growth habit, leaf blade shape, fruit skin colour, pulp colour, pulp texture, fibre content, seed traits, TSS and yield. Tree age ranged from 6 to 80 years, leaf blade length from 10.00 to 25.00 cm, fruit weight from 256 g to 791 g, TSS from 11.70 to 23.40 °Brix, and yield from 150 to 400 kg tree⁻¹. Among the selections, PMi-1 recorded the highest TSS, dark orange pulp and juicy texture, indicating its potential for table purpose, whereas PMi-4 recorded the highest fruit weight, pulp thickness and yield, suggesting suitability for processing or pickle use. Gower distance-based clustering separated PMi-4 and PMi-3 as distinct accessions, while PMi-6 and PMi-7 showed closer similarity. The study confirms the presence of useful phenotypic diversity among farmer-maintained mango selections and emphasizes the need for conservation, multi-season evaluation, biochemical profiling and molecular characterization.