MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHESTNUT CASTANEA SATIVA FROM THE AREA OF UNA-SANA CANTON

Abstract

Una-Sana Canton (USC) has a large forest areas where chestnut Castanea sativa Mill. grows as a self-sprout tree. The aim of this paper was to determine the morphological characteristics of chestnut fruits from four self-sprout locations (Bužim, Bosanska Krupa, Cazin and Velika Kladuša), and plantation where the domestic tree is grafted with Italian Marroni. Number of fruits/kg, the useless fruit, the percentage of kernel, diameter, width, height and weight of fruits were determined. The number of fruit/kg ranged from 160-222.5, percentage of useless fruit varied between 0.88-6.7%. Percentage of kernel ranged from 78.5 to 87.3%. According to the diameter classification, width, height and weight of fruits, chestnuts fruit from USC enters the category of the smallest fruits of the Mediterranean area. Statistical significant differences (p≤0.01) in the number of fruits/kg and weight of fruits was found between locations, as well in the width of the fruit (p≤0.05), while there is no difference in the diameter and height of the fruit. For grafted chestnut, all the characteristics provided better quality.

Keywords

• castanea sativa mill.
• morphological analysis
• fruit quality
• una-sana canton