The Classification Of Chinese Camellia Cultivars, Test Guideline And Construction Of Database For The Known Cultivars

Camellia, the world's famous flower , is one of the ten traditional famous flowers in China and has a long cultivation history.Camellia cultivars,suggesting a wide application field and good prospect,wee recorded not complete in the communication because of regional difference. Homonym and heteronym,the very common phenomena in the communication have influenced the culture appreciation,germplasm exchange, Research and Spread,market development.In this study,on the basis of complete survey of Camellia cultivar resource, classification standards and classification system are studied according to morphological characteristics and numerical classification.The main results are as follows:1.According to the previous researchers'results and guidelines for the ornamental plants'conduct of tests for distinctness,uniformity and stability(DUS)institutived by international union for the protection of new varieties of plants(UPOV),177unified investigation indexes for Camellias have preliminarily worked out. Morphological characteristics of Camellia which distributed in east-China,Sichuan province,Guangxi,Yunan province were investigated in detail.The present distribution in China was basically felt out.According to the recording documents and investigation results,there are 165 cultivars of C.japonica distribute in east-China and 80 cultivars in Sichuan province,96 cultivars of C. reticulata and 50 cultivars of C. sasanqua.2.Based on the results of investigation,numerical classification methods are applied in the classification of domestic Camellia cultivars. R cluster analysis basically reflect the relationship among the all morphologic characters.48 screened morphologic characters are divided into 4 classes:flower type,flower color,leaf characters and others.The previous three classes are used as classification standards. Q cluster analysis result is that 200 OUT(Operational Taxonomic Unit) were classified into5 groups based on the plants combined features: C. japonica cultivar group in east China,south China,in Sichuan province,C.reticulata cultivars,C.sasanqua cultivars and cultivars.Meanwhile,C.sasanqua cultivars are divided into four subsets:Sasanqua group,Hiemalis group,Vernalis group and hybride cultivars between Hiemalis group and another one.The three classification Standards for C.japonica cultivars are in sequence of flower type,flower color and leaf size;the standards for C.reticulata cultivars are flower type,flower color , leaf shape and size; the standards for C.sasanqua cultivars are flower type,flower color,some leaf charactes.3.Classifiction system and standards are determined based on the cultivar origin, evolutional relationship,results of numerical classification and investigation.According to the dual classification system, three standards and new classification systerm are tentatively proposed: germ line,flower type,flower color.All cultivars are divided into six groups,six types and five series according to distribution areas and cultivar origin:Camellia cultivars in east China,in Sichuan province,C.reticulata cultivars,cutivars in south China,C.sasanqua cultivars and C.nitidissima cutivars.Cultivars of C.japonica in east-China and Sichuan province are divided into six types and three series, C.sasanqua are divided into six types and four series.C.reticulata cultivars are divided into five types and three series.4.According to the requirement of UPOV,guidelines for the conduct of tests for other grnamental plants'DUS and morphological characteristics between different groups,guidelines for the conduct of tests for Chinese Camellia'DUS were made out.This test guidelines can be used in identifing new cultivars and protecting of intellectual property rights.53characters and 94 reference cultivars are included in the test guideline(including 35 species,35 foreign cultivars and 45 Chinese cultivars) .Meanwhile,23 characters in the character table are presented and assisted with pictures.5.According to the related regulations in the ICNCP and Test Guideline,investigation data,some doubtful cultivars in literature data are verified,31homonym and synonym cultivars are analysised and corrected.6.Put the data acquired from field survey and cited from other material into Microsoft Office Excel ,then to establish a database for the known Camellia cultivar resources distributed in China.In this database, 177 fields such as distribution regions, biological characteristics, physiological characteristics and so on have been recorded.It contains 925 Camellia cultivars,415 cultivars in east-China,123 in Sichuan province,246 C.reticulata cultivars in Yunnan province ,140 C.sasanqua cultivars and 1 south-China Camellia cultivars.It can be the efficiency,shortcut and assistant tool for researchers to realize the resource status of Camellia cultivars and query. Above research will apply the comprehensive and systematic research results for the finishing and conservation of Camellia cultivar resources, new variety breeding,login and protection, variety extension, International communication, popular science propaganda,Camellia culture appreciation and so on.