Variation of Leaf Characteristics in Populus tomentosa Carr.

An investigation was conducted to determine the extent of variations among nine provenances of Populus tomentosa Carr. in terms of leaf characteristics. A total of 263 accessions were studied under field conditions in the National Gene Bank of P. tomentosa in 2003. All of the accessions were characterized by 17 indices from 1 to 2-dimension constructions. Variance analysis of all characteristics showed that there were significant differences among the nine provenances and among individuals within each provenance. This study reveals that the evaluated germplasm appears to have a wide genetic base and high potential for further genetic improvements and it also indicates that abundant gene resources of P. tomentosa have been collected and preserved in the National Gene Bank.