A. Rekis1,2,3*, Z. Laiadi3

1Department of Agricultural Sciences, Mohamed Khider University, P.O. Box 145, Biskra-07000, Algeria 2Scientific and Technical Research Center on Arid Regions (CRSTRA), University Campus Mohamed Khider, BP 1682 R.P., Biskra-07000, Algeria
3Laboratory of Genetics, Biotechnology and Valorization of Bio-resources, University Mohamed Khider,
P.O. Box 145, Biskra-07000, Algeria

(Manuscript received 28 November 2019; accepted for publication 16 January 2020)

Abstract. The date palm is a monocotyledon thermophilic desert plant, in Algeria grown more than 18 million trees. To have a better quality of dates for the most answered cultivars in Algeria, we can act with fertilization on the palm and these components of the leaflets and spines that affect dates quality. The three cultivars of date palms (Deglet nour-C1, Ghars-C2 and Mechdegla-C3) have been studied to estimate the relationship between leaflet and spine number and date quality. Five phenotypic traits were exploited and subjected to analysis of the principal components in ascending hierarchical classification. The results revealed that the cultivar Deglet nour scored the highest value for the parameters spine number (25) and weight of the date (8.63g), the cultivar Ghars also recorded the highest value for the parameters: number of leaflets (80) and length (4.35cm) and thickness (2.25cm) of the date. In all studied cultivars positive correlations between the length and width of the leaf – on the one side, and weight of the date – on the other, and between the width of leaf and width of the date were found.