Abstract:

This study investigated and selected 10 natural populations of Picea crassifolia in Qilian mountains,based on its natural distribution.Three needle traits, four cone characters, three seed scale traits, three seed wing traits and four seed traits in 10 trees sampled from each of the 10 populations were measured to investigate the phenotypic variation of natural populations and the relationship between the phenotypic variation and their different distribution areas. The methods of ANOVA analysis, multicomparison, correlation analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis were used for analysing the measured data. The results showed that there were significant differences in all the traits among populations, and there were significant differences in the traits among individuals within population except the cone dry weight and cone length/cone width. The variation among populations, that is the mean phenotypic differentiation coefficient (Vst), was 31.20% and smaller than that within populations (68.80%). The traits variation of the populations was affected mainly by longitude in spatial distribution. According to the UPGMA cluster analysis, the 10 populations could be divided into four groups.

Key words: Picea crassifolia, natural population, phenotypic diversity