Genet Resour Crop Evol (2008) 55:619–623 DOI 10.1007/s10722-008-9341-y
NOTES ON NEGLECTED AND UNDERUTILIZED CROPS
Different cucumber melon (Cucumis melo L.) races cultivated in Salento (Italy) G. Laghetti Æ R. Accogli Æ K. Hammer
Received: 3 January 2008 / Accepted: 21 April 2008 / Published online: 20 May 2008 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008
Abstract South Italy is still a centre of diversity for melons but new cultivars progressively replace its traditional landraces. The area of Salento is important for several typical old crops as the cucumber melon ‘Meloncella’ (Cucumis melo L. var. chate (Hasselq.) Filov) traditionally cultivated for its unripe fruits. Information on cultivation, quality and variation of this Apulian landrace (probably the last relic of a wider cultivation in Europe) is reported. A strategy for its characterization and safeguarding is in progress at the genebank of IGV of Bari (Italy). Keywords Agricultural biodiversity Collecting Cucumis melo L. ‘Meloncella’ Salento Unripe fruits
In autumn 2007 during a collecting mission (Laghetti et al. ‘‘in preparation’’) in the Italian area of Greek origin ‘Grecı`a salentina’ (Salento, Apulia region) G. Laghetti (&) Institute of Plant Genetics (IGV), C.N.R, 70126 Bari, Italy e-mail:
[email protected] R. Accogli Botanical Garden, University of Lecce, Lecce, Italy K. Hammer Institute of Crop Science, University of Kassel, 37213 Witzenhausen, Germany
(Fig. 1) several populations of a local type of cucumber melon (Cucumis melo L.), traditionally cultivated for its unripe fruits, were observed and collected. This crop is locally called mainly ‘Meloncella’ but other folk names are also used (Table 1). The ‘Meloncella’ is used in the same way as cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) but taxonomically is a C. melo L. var. chate (Hasselq.) Filov (taxonomic position: C. melo ssp. melo convar. adzhur Greb. ex Mansf. et Greb. var. chate). Hammer et al. (1986) already collected and classified similar crops from other zones of Apulia like the cucumber melons ‘Carosello’ and ‘Barattiere’ (both C. melo var. chate, see also Macchia and Pacucci 1961), the snake melon ‘Tortarello’ (C. melo convar. flexuosus (L.) Greb. ex Mansf. et Greb., see also Perrino et al. 1988) and other cultivated Cucurbitaceae. In Apulia on average ca. 100 ha are cultivated with cucumber melons (Conversa et al. 2005). These Apulian crops, occasionally present also in other regions of southern Italy, are very interesting because they are relic crops closely related to vegetable races from Egypt which were not available as living material even to the first taxonomists of Cucumis melo (Grebensˇcˇikov 1953). According to Grebensˇcˇikov (1986) C. melo originated in Middle Asia and Asia Minor. Recent discussions also include east Africa (Kerje and Grum 2000). But east Africa is very unlikely as the centre of origin of C. melo, where it behaves as a weed or ruderal, not as a paleoindigen (Jeffrey 1967). Also
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Fig. 1 The most important towns (in light grey) in the Salento for ‘Meloncella’: Nardo`, Copertino, Leverano, Galatina and Taviano
recent molecular studies (Kocyan et al. 2007; Renner et al. 2007) place C. melo in a clade which, apart from one Australian species, consists entirely of Asian species. As Renner et al. (2007) write, given the geographic distribution of its extant closest relatives, C. melo itself could have originated
somewhere in Asia and then reached Africa from there, rather than originating in Africa as traditionally assumed. Notably, Indian melon landraces exhibit the largest isozyme variation among Asian melons and Australia is a centre of complex morphological variation of C. melo. The oldest evidences about cultivated melon date back to the Chinese scripts of 2,000 B.C. (Keng 1974) (probably convar. conomon (Thunb.) Greb. ex Mansf. et Greb.) and to Egyptian murals; these data from Egypt indicate that the melons grown were not sweet but very similar to the ‘Meloncella’/‘Carosello’. In Bible it is reported that among the vegetables eaten by the Jewish people in Egypt there were melons similar to those of flexuosus and adzhur convars. Also Greek and Roman scripts going back to the first century B.C. report that these people did not know the sweet melon which was introduced into Europe only in the 13th century A.D. by travellers from Persia or Caucasus (Stepansky et al. 1999). The primary diversification centres of melon were China, India, Afghanistan and Iran; in this last country the crop was already grown 5,000 years ago. Its domestication was in time addressed mainly to the morphology and quality of fruits. Since the first taxonomic study on melon (Naudin 1859) many others followed resulting in a taxonomic confusion that led Kirkbride (1993) to recognize 522 synonyms of C. melo! He proposed to divide the species into two subspecies, C. melo ssp. agrestis (Naud.) Pangalo and C. melo ssp. melo, differentiated by the pubescence on the female hypanthium. Subspecies melo has spreading hairs, and ssp.
Table 1 Folk names for cucumber melons in Apulia Crop
Folk names
Scientific name
‘Meloncella’ ‘Carosello bianco leccese’, ‘carosello spuredda leccese’, ‘carosello spuredda Cucumis melo L. var. chate (Hasselq.) leccese bianco’, ‘cucumbarazzo’, ‘cummarazzo’, ‘meloncella’, Filov ‘pagghiotta’, ‘spiuleddhra’, ‘spuredda bianca’, ‘spuredda nera’, ‘spuredda pelosa’ ‘Carosello’ ‘Carosello’, ‘carosello di Manduria’, ‘carosello di Polignano’, ‘carosello Cucumis melo L. var. chate (Hasselq.) mezzo lungo di Polignano’, ‘carosello scopatizzo’, ‘carosello scopatizzo Filov barese’, ‘carosello tondo di Manduria’, ‘cetriolo’, ‘cocomerazzi’, ‘cocomeri’, ‘meloncedde’, ‘poponcine’, ‘scattone’ ‘Barattiere’
‘Barattiere’, ‘carosello di Fasano barattiere’, ‘carosello di Fasano’, ‘carosello Cucumis melo L. var. chate (Hasselq.) tondo di Fasano’, ‘cianciuffo’, ‘cucumerazzo’, ‘pagnottella di Fasano’, Filov ‘pagnotelle’, ‘tondo liscio fasanese’
‘Tortarello’
‘Tortarello’, ‘tortarello barese’
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Cucumis melo L. convar. flexuosus (L.) Greb. ex Mansf. et Greb.
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agrestis appressed hairs (Kirkbride 1993). The infraspecific classification of cultivars of melon is complex as has been demonstrated by Pitrat et al. (2000). Further studies using the modern molecular technology have demonstrated that the distinction into the two ssp. agrestis and melo is still valid even if the first one should include the vars. agrestis Naud., chito (Morren) Filov, dudaim (L.) Naud. and momordica (Roxb.) Duthie et Fuller (Staub et al. 1998, 2000, 2004, Ritschel et al. 2004; Stepansky et al. 1999). The last paper stresses also that the ‘pubescence on the female hypanthium’ trait is not discriminant of the two sspp. being a ‘continuous genetic variation’ trait. More details about the melon systematics and its history were reported by Hammer et al. (1986), Jeffrey (2001), Pitrat and Foury (2003). The very high morphological variation of melon (in a broad sense) is mainly due to allogamy and to the fertility of its intraspecific crosses (Purseglove 1968). Almost all races classified by Grebensˇcˇikov (1986) which belong to subsp. melo are present in south Italy (Hammer et al. 1999). The present paper is most of all devoted to describe the crop ‘Meloncella’ typical of Salento and its relationship with ‘Carosello’ and ‘Barattiere’ typical of Apulian areas of Bari and Taranto. Famous historians of Salento (e.g. Marciano, Gagliardo, Corrado) have reported that the cultivation of the ‘Meloncella’ is centuries-old (Camera di Commercio 2007). They also reported that, traditionally, the best area for the growing of this crop was that one around the San Donato and Galugnano towns. In the past in this area it was possible to harvest the product from May onwards. Nowadays in local markets ‘Meloncella’ is sold from April up to some months later thanks to the use of small polyethylene tunnels for its forcing; this technique is common mainly along the coast areas. Today the most important areas for its production are the countrysides of Nardo`, Copertino, Leverano, Galatina and Taviano towns (Fig. 1). In the last years the yield has increased thanks to the use of irrigation systems. Two varieties of ‘Meloncella’ were observed during the mission, one with pale skinned fruits and the other one with a dark green skinned fruits. The fruits are oblong, covered by soft hairs, tender and crisp. ‘Meloncella’ is an easily-digestible food, its flavour is fresh and delicate, and much more appreciated than that of cucumbers (C. sativus). For these reasons cucumbers are very uncommon and almost
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unknown in the area where ‘Meloncella’ is grown and eaten. The plant has the characteristic of setting the fruits on the first internode so that its production cycle is very short: ca. 60 days (45 if in greenhouse). One plant can produce more than 30 fruits that are harvested still green with a weight of ca. 200–300 g. The unripe fruits are eaten raw, as salad, with the first dishes. They have low soluble solids and sodium content, and they are very appreciated by consumers being suitable for hypocaloric and hypoglycemic diets (Serio et al. 2005). This crop has been selected by man for the use as unripe fruits, as a matter of fact this is also its exclusive utilization because when they become ripe, their taste is not more palatable, the seed percentage and placenta cavity increase together with a very strong characteristic smell. More details on their fruit quality can be found in Serio et al. (2005). Today in Salento ‘Meloncella’ cultivation is carried out mainly for the local market but, in several cases, only for family consumption. In the areas of Bari and Taranto the fruits of ‘Carosello’ and ‘Barattiere’ are also commercialized at the wholesale markets and it is easy to find them in the hypermarkets; for some years a great part of ‘Barattiere’ product has reached the Apulian markets from Sicily (Conversa et al. 2000). ‘Carosello’ and ‘Barattiere’ have a high degree of tolerance to salt stress and are becoming more and more interesting for both the local and European markets (Ricciardi et al. 2003). In Salento the seeds of ‘Meloncella’ for sowing are traditionally produced by farmers. Furthermore, for some years, certain local seed companies have supplied the reproduction material of the most interesting populations. Very often they are also responsible for cases of confusion among the several types cultivated in this area. During our investigation we have found out that also some seed firms from north Italy already sell small bags, each one containing ca. 50 selected seeds called ‘Cetriolo Carosello Spuredda Leccese’ which is characterized by medium green skin, good flavour and fruits with few seeds. The seed bags report the recommended agro-technique to follow and the nutritional composition of the product. According to our information this variety of ‘Meloncella’ commercialized is multiplied and selected outside of Salento like Tuscany (central-north Italy) with consequent new adaptation problems when grown in their original zones.
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‘Barattiere’ is easily distinguishable from ‘Carosello’ and ‘Meloncella’ mainly by its more round fruit shape, the shorter and more bristly trichomes, less vigorous habit and other traits well described by Bianco (1990) and Bianco et al. (2003). The differences between ‘Carosello’ and ‘Meloncella’ are less evident and related to the parallel microevolution from the same ancestor in two agricultural Apulian areas dissimilar in people, tradition, origin and agricultural conditions. A little morphological and agronomical variability is present within each one of these two groups of cucumber melons. In particular within the ‘Meloncella’ group two subgroups namely ‘spuredde bianche’ and ‘spuredde scure’ can be distinguished (Conversa et al. 2005). The main dissimilarities between ‘Carosello’ and ‘Meloncella’ regard the leaf shape, the leaf border, the fruit weight (ca. 100 g vs ca. 200 g respectively), the presence and characteristics of fruit hairs and fruit ribbing, and earliness (ca. one week ‘for Meloncella’, as also reported by Bonasia et. al. 2005). The morphological distinguishing traits and agronomical evaluation of Apulian landraces of cucumber melons have been also studied in the framework of the Regional Program ‘‘Biodiversity and Genetic Resources—Morphological, productive and qualitative characterization of Carosello and Barattiere’’ ended in 2005. The results of this project indicated the best landraces by their yield potential, fruit quality, salt tolerance and mildew resistance (Cantore et al. 2005; Conversa et al. 2005; Parente et al. 2005; Serio et al. 2005). Lotti et al. (2005) have carried out an AFLP analysis to study the genetic diversity of 19 landraces of ‘Barattiere’, ‘Carosello’, ‘Meloncella’ (called ‘spuredde’ in the paper) and ‘Tortarello’. The results of this research stressed that those landraces were genetically differentiated widely, while their clustering degree was especially related to their geographical provenance. We consider this paper as a preliminary study to understand the genetic relationship among the several Apulian landraces of cumber melon. A more complete study should consider more landraces representative of each Apulian growing areas. This approach might clarify also the genetic similarity between the ‘Meloncella’ from Salento and the ‘Carosello’ from the Province of Bari. The genebank of IGV of Bari (Italy) stores a representative germplasm collection of cumber melon
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Fig. 2 Fruit variability in cucumber melons (Cucumis melo L. var. chate (Hasselq.) Filov) and snake melons (F) (C. melo convar. flexuosus (L.) Greb. ex Mansf. et Greb.) from Salento
from Apulia and a strategy for its characterization and safeguarding is in progress. South Italy is still a centre of diversity for melons and other crops (Maly et al. 1987) but new cultivars progressively replace the traditional landraces. An intensive continuation of the collecting and evaluation work is necessary. (Fig. 2). Acknowledgements We wish to express our gratitude to Mr. Fernando Martignano (technician of IGV, native of Salento) and Mr. Cosimo Stanca expert farmer of Soleto. Only thanks to their extraordinary helpful was it possible to obtain good seed material and information on ‘Meloncella’.
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