Abstract
The objective of this study was to contribute to a better understanding of the variation pattern in leaf beets. 42 biennial samples from a total of 74 entries were described by 17 characters. A group of presumably less selected leaf beets (group A) with narrow petioles was separated from more advanced cultivars by single linkage cluster (SLCA) and principal component analysis (PCA). SLCA sorted the more advanced cultivars into two groups (B and C) based on a simply inherited trait, the leaf colour. These two groups could virtually not be discerned by PCA. Group A contained germplasm similar to provar.vulgaris sensuHelm whereas accessions within group B and C did not easily fit into provar.flavescens. It seems that classical taxonomy does not predict the features of leaf beets precisely enough. It is suggested that this problem can be solved by replacing classical taxonomy in the case of leaf beets by a descriptive database.
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The Dutch-GermanBeta genetic resources programme is a cooperative project of the Centre for Genetic Resources, The Netherlands (CGN) within the Centre for Plant Breeding Research (CPO) and the Institute for Crop Science and Plant Breeding (FAL) (Germany). These institutions cooperate within the framework of the German-Dutch Board for Plant Genetic Resources.
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Frese, L. Variation patterns in a leaf beet (Beta vulgaris, Chenopodiaceae) germplasm collection. Pl Syst Evol 176, 1–10 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00937941
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00937941