Yield, Morphological, and Qualitative Profile of Nine Landraces of Unripe Melon from the Puglia Region Grown in Open Field

In recent years, increasing attention in regional and national markets has been given to the Puglia region’s traditional landraces of unripe melon (Cucumis melo L.). However, distinguishing these landraces is challenging due to their significant variability. A detailed morphological characterization is crucial to identify the unique features of each variety, while also assessing their productive potential. This study evaluated nine Puglia landraces of C. melo: ‘Barattiere’, ‘Carosello leccese’, ‘Carosello scopatizzo’, ‘Cucumbr di Martina Franca’, ‘Carosello di Polignano’, ‘Carosello striato tondo di Massafra’, ‘Spuredda bianca’, ‘Spuredda nera’, and ‘Spuredda fasciata’. The aims of the work were to identify specific and distinctive characters for these landraces, subdivided into traditional macro-groups (“Barattiere”, “Caroselli”, and “Spuredde”), and to evaluate productive and quality traits that could be interesting for future commercial promotion. The main findings revealed distinct characteristics among the “Barattiere” group and the other two macro-groups across all the parameters considered. The differentiation of the “Caroselli” and “Spuredde” macro-groups, on the other hand, was more challenging because of similar intragroup characteristics. In particular, a case of synonymy was found between the landraces ‘Carosello leccese’ and ‘Spuredda bianca’, and a high degree of dissimilarity was identified between ‘Carosello di Polignano’ and the other landraces.