Variation of morphological characters and cluster analysis of Ardisia crenata populations

Variation of morphological characters and cluster analysis of Ardisia crenata populations - Journal of Plant Resources and Environment, 19(4), p.43-49, 2010 .

Taking 144 wild individuals of Ardisia crenata Sims distributing in six populations of Fujian (Yongfu in Zhangping, Guantian in Zhangping and Dongliu in Wuping), Jiangxi (Yonglong in Huichang and Yuling in Dayu)and Guangxi (Binyang in Nanning)as research objects, twenty morphological characters of three aspects including plant morphological characters (plant height, trunk height, trunk diameter, branch number, height under branch and canopy diameter), leaf characters (leaf colour, leaf number, leaf length, leaf width and petiole length)and whole ornamental characters (ear number, ear length, fruit number per ear, fruit diameter, length of ear stalk, length of fruit stalk, 100-fruit weight, fruit colour and ornamental)and their variation ranges were analyzed comparatively. And based on the analysis result, UPGMA cluster analysis was carried out by Euclidean distance. The results show that variation ranges of branch number, height under branch, leaf number, leaf colour, ear number and fruit colour are bigger, and total variation coefficients are 38. 66 percent, 37. 19 percent, 42. 48 percent, 42. 57 percent, 50. 36 percent and 52. 34 percent, respectively. While those of leaf length, leaf width, 100-fruit weight and fruit diameter are smaller, and total variation coefficients all are lower than 15 percent. The differences of branch number, height under branch, leaf colour, ear number and fruit colour among different populations are extremely significant (P<0. 01), those of canopy diameter and fruit number per ear are significant (P<0. 05), while the others are not significant. All individuals can be divided into six phenetic groups of A, B, C, D, E and F at Euclidean distance of 30, and most individuals belonging to same population often cluster in the same phenetic group. In which, all individuals belonging to populations of Dongliu in Wuping and Guantian in Zhangping are clustered in C and D, respectively. E is composed of three individuals belonging to population of Yonglong in Huichang and F is composed of eight individuals belonging to population of Binyang in Nanning. At Euclidean distance of 26, phenetic groups of A, C, D and F can be further divided into 14 sub-groups, in which, A, C and F into four sub-groups and D into two subgroups. All individuals in sub-group C1 respectively belong to four populations and those in other 13 subgroups to 1-3 populations. It is suggested that the morphological characters of A. crenata from different populations appear obvious geographical differentiation feature, and the degree of morphological differentiation among different populations is higher and morphological differentiations exist not only among populations but also within populations.


ARDISIA CRENATA
SIMS
MORPHOLOGICAL CARÁCTER
POPULATION
VARIATION COEFFICIENT
CLUSTER ANALYSIS
PHENETIC GROUP