Phenotypic Variation at Seedling Stage and Preliminary Technical Screening of Elite Progeny in Liriodendron tulipifera
XU Yan
GAO Pengcheng
HUANG Baoqiang
LIU Bingyang
YAO Jingang
LU Yizeng
LIU Jinjin
ZHANG Lianhe
GAO Xiuyun
MU Yanjuan
Abstract：To accelerate the utilization and development of Liriodendron tulipifera,this study systematically analyzed phenotypic variation in elite progeny of L.tulipifera during the seedling stage and conducted preliminary selection by investigating seedling height,ground diameter,and primary branch data from 2-year-old half-sib family seedlings of three elite varieties.Results demonstrated significant variations in growth and morphological traits among 180 randomly selected seedlings.Tree height,ground diameter,and branch number exhibited extremely significant or significant differences(P＜0.0 1).Coefficients of variation ranged from 2.07％to 17.01％,with branch number showing the highest variability(17.01％),followed by primary branch length(10.87％),while tree height and ground diameter exhibited lower variability.Significant positive correlations were observed between tree height and ground diameter(0.581**)and tree height and primary branch length(0.557**)respectively,and the strongest correlation was between primary branch length and thickness(0.769**).Principal component analysis extracted three principal components(cumulative contribution rate:88.19％).Specifically,Y1(growth potential factor,explaining 61.24％variance)was positively associated with tree height,primary branch length,and thickness;Y2 characterized branching patterns;and Y3 reflected shoot-root balance.Using the M+2SD selection threshold(tree height＞239.48 cm,ground diameter＞30.28 mm),two elite individuals were preliminary technical screened from 14,000 seedlings(selection rate:0.014％),the phenotypic gains in average tree height(242.5 cm)and basal diameter(34.62 mm)ranged from 57.45％to 86.23％.This research not only enhanced the understanding of phenotypic variation characteristics in elite progeny of L.tulipifera at the seedling stage,but also contributed significantly to laying a robust foundation for the breeding of superior new varieties.
Keywords：Liriodendron tulipiferaphenotypic variationgrowth incrementform quality indexpreliminary technical screening at seedling stage
Publication Date：2025-10-28
Online Publishing Date：2026-05-22(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：5( 31-35 )