<div><strong>Background: </strong>Tenera oil palm is widely planted as a commercial plantation crop throughout Southern Thailand. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the phenotypic correlation and the direct and indirect effects among bunch yields and vegetative characteristics in commercial tenera oil palms.<br />
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<strong>Methods:</strong> The oil yield, fresh fruit bunch, bunch number, average bunch weight, leaf area, leaf dry weight and rachis length were recorded from six commercial tenera oil palm progenies. The data were recorded between January 2019 and June 2020 at The Chaipattana Foundation&rsquo;s oil palm plantation in Trang Province, Thailand.<br />
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<strong>Result:</strong> Results show that fresh fruit bunch, average bunch weight and rachis length positively correlated with oil yield (rp = 0.90**, 0.50* and 0.53, respectively), while bunch number and rachis length positively correlated with fresh fruit bunch (rp = 0.58* and 0.47*, respectively). The path analysis shows that bunch number significantly correlated with fresh fruit bunch (0.58*) and strongly directly affected it (1.11). The fresh fruit bunch significantly correlated with oil yield, (0.90**) and had a strong direct (2.08) and indirect effect (1.20). These results indicate that bunch number and fresh fruit bunch are useful variables for oil yield improvement in further breeding programs of oil palm.</div>


<p>Correlation and Path Analysis in Commercial Tenera Oil Palms Collected from Southern Thailand</p>


<div>Oil palm trees can be identified according to fruit traits into dura, pisifera and tenera types. DNA markers associated with shell thickness can be used to identify fruit traits at the seedling stage of an oil palm. The purpose of this study was to discover fruit morphology and SSR markers for identifying dura, pisifera and tenera oil palms. The results show that the tenera had a ring of fibers enclosing the kernel, but the dura had no such ring of fibers. The tenera had thicker shell and more mesocarp per fruit than the dura. The markers, MF233033 and MF233056, were found to distinguish between the pisifera and dura or tenera types. But they were found to not clearly distinguish between the dura and tenera types. These results suggest that fruit morphology can be used for identification of fruit traits of oil palm better than these SSR markers.</div>


<div>Identifying F2 Oil Palm (<em>Elaeis guineensis</em> Jacq.) Trees for Their Dura, Pisifera and Tenera Types using Fruit Morphology and SSR Markers</div>


Correlation and Path Analysis in Commercial Tenera Oil Palms Collected from Southern Thailand

Identifying F2 Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) Trees for Their Dura, Pisifera and Tenera Types using Fruit Morphology and SSR Markers