Introduction.
Barberry (Berberis aristata DC.), a small fruit,
is found growing in the wild in the temperate region of northern
Pakistan. Materials and methods. Three different locations of
Azad Jammu and Kashmir, i.e., Topa, Banjosa and
Neriyan Sharif, were explored; thirty accessions of barberry were
identified and characterized on the basis of their growth habit,
flowering, fruiting and chemical composition of fruits. Results.
The accessions exhibited high diversity in their phenotypical/morphological
traits such as growth habit, intensity and time of flowering, fruit
setting, ripening time, productivity, and fruit shape and color.
The location had a great impact on quantitative parameters. Accessions
collected from Neriyan Sharif had significantly greater plant height,
higher number of branches per plant, extended flowering duration
(days), took more time to maturity (days) and had high fruit setting (%),
while those from Topa had large-sized leaves and fruits with greater
average fruit weight. The nutritional composition of fruits indicated
that the accessions from Topa had higher carbohydrate, ash, total soluble
solids and Mn contents, with significantly higher juice pH, and
lower acidity; while the accessions from Neriyan Sharif had significantly
higher moisture, protein, fat, fiber, K, Ca, Na, Fe, Cu, Pb and
Cr contents and were highly acidic. The accessions collected from
Banjosa were almost intermediate for the quantitative characteristics
studied. Conclusions. The results suggested that not
only the genotype but its growing location as well are the main
factors that determine the growing habit, productivity and nutritional
composition of barberry fruits, and this ultimately provides important
information on how to make the best use of them.