Phenotype diversity of herbaceous peony variety resources in Heze, Shandong of eastern China and Luoyang, Henan of central China

ObjectivePaeonia lactiflora is an excellent Chinese traditional flower with rich variety resources. Heze of Shandong Province, eastern China and Luoyang of Henan Province, central China are main cultivation regions with abundant cultivars in China, but lacking genetic diversity report based on the phenotypic traits. This is not conducive to the protection, development and utilization of germplasm resources.

MethodIn this paper, the genetic diversity of 240 herbaceous peony cultivars from Heze and Luoyang was analyzed based on 28 phenotype traits using principal component analysis, factor analysis and cluster.

ResultThe results showed that the genetic diversity index of quantitative and quality traits were 1.98-2.10 and 0.28-1.94, and the genetic diversity of majority traits was high. The 10 main components were extracted, then the factor load matrix was processed using the maximum orthogonal rotation by Varimax. The 10 main factors affecting their phenotype were obtained, including height, flower color quantity, lateral bud and growth vigor, flower type, petalody, leaf type and flower diameter, flower season, stem color, leaflet curly and flower bud. The 240 varieties were divided into six groups by cluster analysis. The first to fourth groups included 69, 67, 16 and 84 cultivars, respectively. The fifth and sixth groups only had one and three varieties, respectively, suggesting that those four cultivars were different sources from the other 236 varieties.

ConclusionThis study clarified the phenotypic diversity characteristics and relationship of 240 varieties from Heze and Luoyang. In the future breeding, plant height, flower branch length, flower color number, plant growth vigor, flower pattern and petalization of parents should be paid more attention. At the same time, the parents should be far away each other in the affinity clustering diagram.