Muntries – The domestication and improvement of Kunzea pomifera

  • 95 pages

  • Published: 1 Jan 2004

  • Author(s): Page, Tony

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Many Australian native plant foods have the potential to broaden the culinary and nutritional composition of the human diet, both in Australia and worldwide. Kunzea pomifera (muntries) is a species that occurs naturally in south-eastern South Australia and western Victoria and produces an edible berry which was highly valued by Aboriginal peoples and is now being grown in commercial plantations on a modest scale.
Current cultivation of muntries is based primarily on selections taken from its natural populations. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the potential for its domestication by examining its plant morphological and molecular variation, its breeding system including its intra- and interspecific cross-compatibility, and the potential for successful vegetative propagation.