Introduction And Utilization Of The Advanced Generation Hybrids Of Tree Peonies And Paeonia Delavayi

Tree peony (Paeonia×suffruticosa) is a famous Chinese traditional flower. To breed more excellent cultivars, the Advanced Generation Hybrids (AGH) was introduced from Melbourne, Australia as a sort of important parents to overcome distance-hybridization infertility and follow up it's growth performance in Beijing. In addition, a class of wild varieties in Paeonia delavayi that has obviously valuable for the breeding was introduced from Shangri-La, Yunan of Chiba. At the base of the introductions, relative compatibility of these resources were investigated through cross-breeding and the main results were as followed:(1) Sixty cultivars of a total number of 130 plants of AGH were introduced in August 2007 from Melbourne, among which 45 cultivars of a total number of 100 plants finally survived in October 2009 in Beijing and 19 cultivars normally bloomed and developed fruits. The introduction successfully overcome the biological inadaptability caused by the inconsistent of the season and phenology between northern and southern hemispheres.(2) It was observed that AGH florescence was from later April to early May, which partly crossed the florescence of P. rockii Rock Groups and infra-sectional hybrids. The petal displayed colorful and unique characteristic which was different from domestic tree peonies groups; the leaves had characteristic of P. delavayi and traditional cultivars; the plants were upright type, the most of the flowers types were single or semi-double; the plants had vigorous growth, which can be used as the excellent parents for improving other domestic tree peonies groups.(3) Wild P. delavayi near Hala village,Shangri-La,Yunnan province had been investigated. Ten types of wild P. delavayi had been marked and introduced, which had different petal colors. At the same time, the affinity of P. delavayi used as female parents had been discussed. The results suggest that cross-boundary breeding is a valuable way for further improvement on breeding pattern.(4) AGH have extremely high fertility to overcome the difficulties facing the distance-hybridization breeding of tree peonies. As the male parent, AGH was used in sixteen combinations and 186 seeds were harvested from 14 combinations. Moreover,11 combinations in which AGH as the female parent and P. Xsuffruticosa Japan groups or P. X lemonei'Golden Era'as the male parent were crossed and 11 seeds had been harvested from 6 combinations.