Morphological, Chemical and Molecular Characterization of ‘Old olive’ (Olea europaea L.) from Montenegro

ABSTRACT Thousands of years of tradition of olive cultivation in Montenegro is witnessed with the ‘Old olive’ estimated to be more than 2000 years old. ‘Old olive’ draws attention to its genetic potential and the relation to the closest grown olive cultivars. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to give the basic description of ‘Old olive’ (through 20 morphological and 37 chemical properties) as well as to determine its DNA profile and to examine the closeness with major olive cultivar grown, cv. ‘Žutica’. The obtained data showed the differences between examined samples. ‘Old olive’ started flowering (27. May) more than 10 days later than cv. ‘Žutica’ (14. May), and began ripening 15 days later (20th October and 5th October, respectively). From 21 morphological parameters analysed all traits of fruit (weight 2.11g in ‘Old olive’ and 3.55g in cv. ‘Žutica’), and inflorescence density (6.39 versus 5.55) showed very significant and significant differences, respectively. The chemical properties also showed very significant differences in olive oil content in the fresh (11.28 versus 19.68%) and dry matter (27.97 versus 47.78%), and significant differences in the content of linolenic acid (0.76 versus 0.54g/100 of FA and of campesterol (3.4 versus 3.1%). Three out of eleven SSR markers (DCA05, DCA09, DCA16) distinguished obtained DNA fragments, and showed as important tool in differentiation of two samples. Further study of the ‘Old olive’ as a living memory of olive cultivation in Montenegro, should be to examine its relation with other ancient olive trees and local varieties.