Abstract:

Based on the investigation data of 84 progenies of Liquidambar formosana Hance, the results indicated that there existed significant differences in tree height, DBH, basal diameter, annual height growth and branch number among 84 progenies of L. formosana at 3 years old. The family heritability ranged from 0.42 to 0.54, and the heritability of a single tree was between 0.27 and 0.43. Among these traits, the heritability values for tree height and branch number were relatively high among the families, which were moderately controlled by genetic factors, while the others were less genetically controlled. Among the families, the coefficient of phenotype variation for various traits ranged from 16.80% to 35.41%, while genetic variation coefficient was from 16.38% to 25.62%. Compared with the other traits, the phenotype and genetic variation coefficients of the tree height were the least, which indicated that this trait was relatively stable. Correlation analysis showed that there were some relationships between phenotype, environment and heredity for all the traits. On the basis of genetic gains of tree height and DBH (>5%), 9 great superior families were selected in the trial. Analysis of genetic variation of L. formosana also showed that there were great potentials in improvement for this species.

Key words: Liquidambar formosana, Progeny test, Heritability, Correlation analysis