KERAGAMAN SPESIES PALA (MYRISTICA SPP.) MALUKU UTARA BERDASARKAN PENANDA MORFOLOGI DAN AGRONOMI

Abstract

Nutmeg is native to Indonesia and information about its diversities are limited. Species and varietal diversities are important to be evaluated for conservation purposes of this crop. Nutmeg species and varietal diversities could be assessed by observing morphological and phenotypic variabilities in the field. The objectives of this research were to assess phenotypic variabilities among nutmeg accessions of North Moluccas and evaluate intra and inter specific clustering of nutmeg accessions in the regions. At least fifteen years old provenances of nutmeg population at Tidore and Patani, Central Halmahera, North Moluccas were used in this experiment. The accessions consisted of Myristica fragrans, Myristica fatua, Myristica argentea, Myristica succedane, and a number of unknown nutmeg species. Nutmeg accessions from Patani and Tidore showed wide variabilities in fruit shape, mature fruit color, and seed shape. While only nutmeg accessions from Tidore showed variabilities in mace weight. Dendogram constructed based on phenotypic character grouped the nutmeg accessions into four groups at 70% similarity index. The first group consisted of two accessions M. fatua and one unknown nutmeg species from Tidore and M. fragrans from Patani. The second group consisted of two accessions of M. argentea and two unknown nutmeg species from Tidore and one accessions of M. succedanea from Patani. The third group consisted of only M. argentea and six unknown nutmeg species from Patani. The fourth group consisted of two M. fragrans assessions from Tidore.