Abstract:

Variation of traits was analyzed included height, diameter at breast height (DBH), stem volume, crown width, straightness, wood basic density, tracheid length and width of open-pollinated progenies from clonal seed orchard of Pinus massoniana. Traits of growth, stem form and wood quality among families were significant differences that indicated the improvement potential was notable. Heritability of the height growth and wood basic density reached 0.691 and 0.640, respectively. According to the correlation analysis between traits, stem straightness could be improved indirectly when growth traits were improved, growth traits were significant correlated with wood basic density, and wood basic density was not significantly correlated with length and width of tracheid. Under the selection ratio of 10 percent, genetic gain was 19.74 and 19.32 percent respectively, and selected families from the progeny test stands at age of 5 years and 8 years were the same. And genetic correlation of height, DBH and stem volume was significant at level of 0.01. These all showed that selection of the short rotation of P. massoniana for pulp and paper use would be efficient for trees of 5-year-old. Comparing the heritability of all the traits and with the result of canonical correlation analysis, the trait of height growth could be the most important index for selection. Consideration was given to wood quality of all the families, and flowering and fruit setting of the clones in seed orchard, twelve plus families were selected under 10 percent selection ratio of height growth and stem volume.

Key words: Pinus massoniana, clonal seed orchard, progeny test, trait variation, family selection