Thesis (BS Biology) -- University of the Philippines Mindanao, 2010

The ten durian cultivars namely: Alcon Fancy, arancillo, CES 2815, CES3266, D101, Kob, Lacson Uno, LAcson Dos, Oboza and Puyat were studied. Globose, oval were the most common fruit shapes; depressed was the common fruit base shape; while pointed and convex were the most common fruit apex shapes. Convex and pointed concave were the more common soine shapes. Obovoid and ellipsoid seed shapes wereobsserved in all ten cultivars. Fruit weight was positively correlated with peduncle diameter and pericarp weight. Except for D101, all cultivars have five locules. Uniform was the predominant fruit peduncle shape except for CES 3266, Lacson Uno and Lacson Dos. Fruit weight ranged from 1.17kg (Alcon Fancy) to 3.46kg (Lacson Uno); fruit length from 15,68cm (Alcon Fancy) t 26.12 cm (Puyat) while fruit diamter ranged from 40.81cm (CES 2815) to 65.83cm (Lacson Uno). Seed number and seed weight per fruitwas leadt D 101. Seed number was most (i.e., 16.5) in Lacson Dos but was not necessarily the heaviest. D 101 had the most number of aborted and immature seeds.Seed weight was positively correlated to seed widthbut does not necessarily indicate excellent viability of seeds. Dehiscence of durian usually occurs on the middle and bottom part of the fruit with higher number of spines which will contribute to poor marketability. Spines were widely spaced in the middle part of the fruit in all cultivars except for Arancillo which exhibited close and compact spine arrangement and intermidiate in the fruit base and apex. Spininess in the various parts of the fruit varied with Kob as the most spiny. Longer spines were found to exhibit lesser soine base. All cultivars exhibited longer spines in the middle followed by spines in the base and apex. These results indicated the diversity of fruit and seed characteristics of the ten durian cultivars. Thus, growers are known to select cultivars such as Lacson Uno, Puyat and Kob for higher fruit weight which exhibit longer dehiscence.