First morphological characterization of autochthonous olive (Olea europaea L.) denominations from central and eastern of Algeria

Olive ( Olea europaea L.) resources in Algeria are very little investigated. In fact, a total of 60 denominations have been the subject of characterization studies and they are cited in the bibliography but only 36 varieties are described and listed in the catalog of Algerian varieties of olive tree. In this work, a study on the diversity by mean of a field survey followed by morphological characterization, an estimate of the Shannon diversity index of a set of denominations collected in central and eastern of Algeria were carried out. The survey allowed us to note the existence of 33 denominations never mentioned in the bibliography. Morphological characterization based on the characteristics of tree, fruit and endocarp allowed us to a morphological description of 23 denominations. The Principal Component Analysis, Multiple Correspondence Analysis and Ascending Hierarchical Classification analysis allowed us to classify them into a few groups. The value of the relative diversity of all denominations is slightly below the average (0.42). The results obtained in this work provide very useful information on certain morphological characteristics of the studied denominations and indicate the critical conditions in which several denominations are found, which constitutes a great risk of genetic erosion.