The passion fruit (Passiflora nitida Kunth) is wild specie widely distributed in national territory. It has high potential for plant breeding aiming at resistance to several diseases that cause expressive losses in plantations of commercial passion fruit (Passiflora edulis Sims). Its fruits are edible and have a high commercial value as fresh fruit. Thus, this study aimed to analyze the physical and chemical characteristics of fruits and to determine under field conditions, the yield of ten accessions of P. nitida from different States and phytofisionomic types of north and central regions of Brazil. This work was carried out at Embrapa Cerrados, located at Planaltina, Federal District. The accessions evaluated were collected in Manaus-AM, from secondary rainforest; in Núcleo Rural São José - DF, from plateau and vereda; in Vale do Amanhecer - DF, from vereda; in Botanic garden - DF, from Cerrado Stricto sensu; in Silvânia - GO, from riparian forest and plateau; in Itiquira - MT, from Cerrado Stricto sensu; in Alto Paraíso - GO, from plateau; in Natividade -TO, from plateau. The statistic design was randomized block with four repetitions and tree useful plants. Plants were propagated bystem-rooted cuttings of each access and carried out on vertical espalier system of 1.80 meters high with dripping irrigation. The evaluations were made during the harvesting of 2006 and 2007. The access from Vale do Amanhecer, presented the best fruits yield. This access might be used in an improvement program aiming the insertion of P. nitida fruit in market. It was also possible to observe that sources proceeding from Brazilian Savannas have more desirable physical characteristics, producing bigger fruits and with more pulp yield. On the other hand, the access from Amazonas showed small peel thickness, a desirable characteristic to natural fruit market.
Passiflora nitida Kunth; agronomic characteristics; geographical origin; phytophysiognomic types
