Abstract: Twenty-one carambola germplasm accessions grown in the orchards of China’s South Subtropical Crops Research Institute were used in this study. Genetic diversity of fruit physical characteristics and 25 quality attributes including acid, sugar, and mineral nutrient contents was evaluated using analysis of variance (ANOVA), correlation analysis and principal component analysis (PCA). The results showed that there were significant differences among the carambola germplasm accessions in all measured factors, indicating abundant genetic diversity. The highest variation coefficient (CV) was found in tartaric acid (109.95%), followed by iron (104.78%), citric acid (79.07%) and total acid (73.54%) contents, while the lowest CV was observed in fruit length (9.97%) and soluble solids content (7.44%). A high correlation was found among some quality attributes. In addition, the results of PCA showed that more than 81.63% of the observed variability was explained by the first 6 principal components, and indicated that the variation in the fruit quality was multi-directional.

Key words: carambola; germplasm; fruit quality; cluster analysis; principal component analysis