Morphological and molecular analyses for the characterization of a group of Italian olive cultivars

A group of olive varieties, commonly cultivated in the sub-coastal area of the Emilia-Romagna region, in Italy’s northern olive cultivation area limit, were described using both morphological and molecular approaches. The morpho-biological characters of each accession were collected according to the UPOV’s descriptor list. Biometric indexes of inflorescence, leaf, fruit, and stone, measured using the Video Image Analysis (VIA), were compared to the molecular data obtained on the same set of cultivars using AFLP (Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism) and SSR (Simple Sequence Repeat) markers. The morphological and molecular data led to similar representations of the cultivar relationships. However, only the AFLP and SSR data were able to characterize specific olive varieties and identify erroneous denominations and cases of synonymy.