Morphological Parameters of Carob (Ceratonia siliqua L.) Pods and Seeds as Affected by Different Geographical Sites in Morocco

The research work aims to evaluate the morphological parameters of the pods and seeds of carob trees in 29 different geographical sites in Morocco. The results obtained showed that morphological parameters studied are significant (p ≤ 0.05) between the geographical sites. Most of the pods were dark brown in color, curved, and wrinkled, while most of the seeds are reddish-brown, oval, and with a smooth surface. The morphological parameters of the pods range from 71.16 to 170.4 mm in length, 10.93 to 23.23 mm in diameter, 5.11 to 9.11 mm in thickness, 2.01 to 22.73 g in mass, 1.38 to 19.51 g in pulp mass and 64.17 to 89.17% in pulp yield. The seeds exhibit a length of 4.64-10.66 mm, a diameter of 3.82-8.00 mm, a thickness of 3.21-5.53 mm, a seed mass of 0.06-0.25 g and a total mass of the seeds in a pod of 0.64-3.35 g. Total number of seeds per pod is 6.2-15.75 and the seed yield is for 10.56-36.04%. Our results showed an important genetic resource of carob tree in Morocco and the potentialities of the carob pods and seeds of these genetic resources may be exploited in the genetic selection and agricultural development programs and ecological restoration projects in the arid and degraded areas. Keywords: Carob tree, Morocco, carob pods, carob pulp, carob seeds, morphological parameters.