evaluation of some floraland fruit production characteristics among four iranian summer squash landraces and their comparison with f1 commercial cultivar

landraces are a valuable source of genetic diversity for varietal improvement. despite, iran is the fifth squash and pumpkin producer, but no available information exists about the diversity of summer squash landraces. in order to evaluation of floral and fruit production characteristics among four iranian summer squash and a check cultivar of f1 hybrid ‘asma’, an experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design (rcbd) with three replications. each plot had four tagged sample plants of one accession. the results were demonstrated significantly substantial differences for number of node, node position to first female, number of female flower, female/male flower, number of harvested fruit from main stem, number of lateral branch/plant, number of harvested fruit from branches/plant and total harvested fruit/plant traits in studied accessions. number of female flower ranged from a minimum of 8 to a maximum of 18. it was resulting to a broad variability in number of harvested fruit from main stem (5.2-12). there was a significant difference between iranian landraces and check cultivar for floral and fruit production characteristics. growth habit and number of female flower were two main factors that influenced fruit production/plant variability.