Morphological descriptors

The technical guidelines used for the morphological characterization of the olive varieties has been described by the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) in the TG/99/4, (UPOV, 2011). 

Document TG/99/4 establishes the guidelines for conducting DUS examinations. This document includes expression levels for each character and guidelines for their evaluation (season, shoot types and sample size), as well as reference cultivars and pictures to facilitate character assessment. 

You can find document TG/99/4 (UPOV, 2011), available in four languages, through the following link: https://www.upov.int/meetings/es/doc_details.jsp?meeting_id=22167&doc_id=168085.

The pomological scheme used for olive, includes 24 main characters describing the tree (3), leaf (4), fruit (7) and endocarp (10), with those of the endocarp being the most important ones for carrying out the cultivar identification and authentication in a germplasm bank. This is because the endocarp characters are: 1) less influenced by the environment; 2) more polymorphic and, therefore, with higher discrimination capacity; and 3) convenient for an economic, fast and reliable identification. In addition, endocarps are easily conserved and preserved over time.

UCO researchers extensively contributed to the development of the aforementioned UPOV document. Firstly, the 24 pomological characters were initially defined by Barranco and Rallo (1984) and, secondly, the pictures were taken by Barranco et al., (2005). Actually, the CEVO-UCO (the Spanish and European examination centre) is using document TG/99/4 as the accepted protocol in the technical DUS tests for commercial and protected olive varieties that are in the registration process.