Abstract:

This study was conducted to determine phenotypic variation of natural populations and found out the relation between phenotypic variation of natural populations and different distribution areas in P. asperata. Based on field investigations and analysis of the natural distribution of P.asperata in P.R.China,four cone characters, three needle traits,three seed scale traits,three seed wing characters and four seed traits in 30 trees from each of 10 populations in P. asperata were selected and investigated. Morphological diversities among/within populations were discussed on the basis of 17 phenotypic traits analysis such as the cone,the needle,the dry weight of cone,the seed scale,the seed wing,the seed and the weight of per 1 000 seeds and so on. The method of novon analysis,multi-comparison,related analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis were used for analysis of experimental results.The results showed that there was significantly difference in genetic variation among populations and among individuals within populations.In different individuals within populations,the CV of five phenotypic traits(in cone,needle,seed scale,seed wing and seed traits) were 19.14%,26.46%,13.58%,19.78% and 17.40%,respectively.The traits stability of seed scale was higher than that of other traits.The V_ST of cone, needle, seed scale,seed wing and seed ranged from 2.09% to 40.62%.The mean phenotypic differentiation coefficient V_ST between populations was 30.99%, which was greatly smaller than that within populations(69.01%). The cone length,cone diameter,seed scale length and the weight per 1 000 seeds were the most important phenotypic traits which were easy to measure in P.asperata. The traits variation of natural populations within P.asperata species affected mainly by latitude in spatial distribution.The 10 populations of P.asperata investigated could be divided into five groups according to the UPGMA cluster analysis.

Key words: Picea asperata, natural population, pbenotypic diversity