Study On The Leaves Morphological Diversity And The Exploration Of Excellent Fiber Germplasm Of Gerbera Delavayi Franch

Gerbera delavayi Franch. belong to Gerbera, Compositae and is a kind of perennial herb. The white fiber that in the back of its leaf was often used for ignition, so it was named after the fire. The G. delavayi has wide application value, its root can be made into medicine, its flowers can be made into fresh cut flowers, specially, the fiber on the back of its leaf is excellent textile material. The textile technology about G. delavayi is full of national characteristics, and it has been named the intangible cultural heritage by a number of counties in Yunnan and Sichuan Province. However, affected by human activities and invasive plants, the living environment of G. delavayi is deteriorated rapidly. Therefore, the basic research and the protective development of G. delavayi is imminent.The leaf morphology diversity and fiber characteristics of 8 G. delavayi populations from Sichuan and Yunnan province were studied preliminarily in this paper.First of all, The 11 characteristics of G. delavayi leaf were investigated in 8 populations in southwest China. They were the leaf length, leaf width, petiole length, leaf area, fresh weight, leaf shape index and the leaf stoma length, stoma width, stoma perimeter, stoma area and stoma density. Variance analysis and multiple comparison showed that the F-value of 6 leaf morphologic characteristics was 17.93, 14.84,6.97,22.44,23.54 and 2.80. The differences were significant. From the analysis of variance coefficient and diversity index, the average variation coefficient of leaf morphologic index was 35.64%, the transverse variation is greater than longitudinal. There was significant difference in stomatal density, the main stomatal variation reflected in the longitudinal direction. The clustering analysis indicated that the 8 groups could be classified into 3 groups. Shilin, Dongchuan, Wuding and Lijiang were classified into group Ⅰ, Kaiyuan and Eryuan were classified into group Ⅱ, Dechang and Xinping were the group Ⅲ.Secondly, in order to find the excellent fiber germplasm, this paper did some research on fiber area, fiber length, fiber diameter, average fiber weight of single leaf and average fiber weight per leaf area. The results showed that the variation coefficient of leaf area and average fiber weight of single leaf were reached 53.11% and 41.49%. The comprehensive correlation analysis and principal component analysis showed that the main factors which affect the fiber yield of could be summarized as fiber area and fiber density, the effect of fiber area was larger. According to the main facter, the excellent fiber germplasm of populations and some single plants were choosed from Xinping and Dechang. These plants can provide good fiber resource for artificial cultivation, meanwhile, these could provide favorable material resources for further research.