Jojoba (Simmondsia chinesis (link)‎ schneider)‎ : a potential shrub in the Arabian desert I. overall performance of seven jojoba ecotypes

الملخص EN

Recent investigations suggest that the production of the jojoba plant is influenced by the interaction between genotype, climatic conditions and age of the plantation.

The performance of seven jojoba ecotypes was evaluated over seven planting sites across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Vegetative growth, viz., plant height and number of branches generally increased with plant age.

Estimates of plant height attained for 3-year old plants were 82.5, 65.1, 85.1 and 129.2cm at Al-Baha, Hail, Hada Al-Sham and Al-Medinah areas, respectively.

Average number of branches per plant was 5.7, 9.7, 11.6 and 9.3 for the respective locations.

Highest estimates of seed yield per plant (321 g / plant for the top cultivar (92288MX) and of oil content (56 % for all the American cultivars, except 92288MX were recorded at Al-Medinah planting site, whereas those of protein content (18.3 % for 92288MX) were recorded at Hail.

Largest seeds (101.3 g / 100 seeds) were recorded for cultivar 92284AR at both sites.

Thus through organized and active research high yielding cultivars adapted to various locations in the Arabian desert can be selected.