““Qualitative characteristics” are those that are expressed in discontinuous states (e.g. sex of plant: dioecious female (1), dioecious male (2), monoecious unisexual (3), monoecious hermaphrodite (4)). These states are self-explanatory and independently meaningful. All states are necessary to describe the full range of the characteristic, and every form of expression can be described by a single state. The order of states is not important. As a rule, the characteristics are not influenced by environment.”

 

References

 

UPOV, 2002. General introduction to the examination of distinctness, uniformity and stability and the development of harmonized descriptions of new varieties of plants. https://www.upov.int/export/sites/upov/resource/en/tg_1_3.pdf