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MORPHOLOGICAL DIVERSITY OF LEAF AND ITS GEOGRAPHIC DIFFERENTIATION OF CITRUS CAVALERIEI FROM YUNNAN

FENGJUAN MOU1, KUN MA1, SHIZHU MA2, SHENGZHI DUAN3 AND YIGUO LI4*

1Faculty of Forestry, Southwest Forestry University, Yunnan Kunming 650224, China

2Dali Institute of Forestry Science, Yunnan Xiaguan, 671000, China

3Heshun Forestry Station, Tengchong Forestry Bureau, Yunnan Tengchong, 679116, China

4Faculty of Life Science and Technology, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Yunnan Kunming 650500, China

*Corresponding author's e-mail: liyiguo73@126.com

Abstract

The orange species Citrus cavaleriei is endemic to China and its unifoliate compound leaves are characterized by the well-developed wing leaf. Nine populations from Yunnan Province were studied, based on ten leaf characters, including the total length of leaf (TLL), the length of wing leaf (LWL), the width of wing leaf (WWL), the length of leaflet (LL), the width of leaflet (WL), LWL/WWL, LL/WL, LWL/TLL, LWL/LL, and WWL/WL. The results show that the maximums of most leaf characters are in the Weixin Population while the minimums are in the Yangbi Population; the variation of most leaf characters in Yangbi Population is highest and that in Suijiang Population and Eshan-1 Population is lowest; the variations of WWL in all populations were higher, while that of LWL/TLL is lower; the variance of every character among populations is very significant; the correlation between the most leaf characters is very positively or negatively significant. Meanwhile the longitude has a very significant correlation with all leaf characters; the latitude with LL, WL, TLL, and LL/WL has a very significant positive correlation, that with WWL has a significant positive correlation, and that with LWL/TLL, LWL/LL, WWL/WL, and LWL/WWL has a very significant negative correlation; the correlation between the altitude and LWL/TLL, LWL/LL, WWL/WL, and LWL/WWL are positively significant and that between the altitude and LL, WL, TLL, WWL, LWL, and LL/WL were extremely negatively significant. The clustering of ten leaf characters from nine populations is in accordance with the geographical distribution, especially the longitude.

Key words: Citrus cavaleriei; Geographic differentiation; Leaf; Morphological diversity.