Traditional onion (Allium cepa L.) varieties are still produced in certain regions of Spain due to their high quality and acceptance in local markets. The evaluation of morphological traits for 18 local northwestern Spanish onion lines showed the existence of three different groups attending exclusively to bulb shape traits and six classes if we consider bulb shape traits as well as skin and flesh colours. There was a positive correlation between storage quality and percentage of dry matter content. The importance of considering well defined descriptors in order to characterize correctly onion germplasm is also discussed in this paper.
Additional key words: Allium cepa, characterization, dry matter, germplasm, storage quality.
|