Selecting provenances of Cephalotaxus fortunei for superior growth and content of harringtonine and homoharringtonine

Key words: 
• forest breeding /
• Cephalotaxus fortunei /
• provenance /
• harringtonine /
• homoharringtonine /
• selection

Abstract: To determine variation in geographic growth patterns，dry matter accumulation，and medicinal content of young Cephalotaxus fortunei trees and to select superior provenances with high yield for medicinal use in Mingxi of Fujian Province，a provenance test was set up at Mingxi，Fujian Province as well as Chun’an and Anji in Zhejiang Province. Two-year-old seedlings were chosen for random block design with three replications in February，2005，then branches and leaves were collected in September of 2006 to determine the content of harringtonine and homoharringtonine，and tree height，root collar diameter，number of branches，dry matter accumulation of each organ were measured in December of 2006. A correlation analysis was conducted. Results indicated strong differences（P＜0.05） among provenances for tree height，root collar diameter，number of branches，dry matter accumulation of each organ，and content of harringtonine and homoharringtonine in branches and leaves. In addition，differences among long-leaf C. fortunei with high growth rate and dry matter accumulation was greater（P＜0.05） than among short-leaf plants. Among the three sites，no differences between harringtonine and homoharringtonine content of leaves were found，whereas harringtonine was significantly greater （P＜0.05） in branches. Also，longitude of the seed source was correlated to：1） dry matter accumulation （r = 0.423 3，P＜0.05），as well as 2） leaf homoharringtonine（r = 0.505 1，P＜0.05） and 3） branch harringtonine（r = 0.450 0，P＜0.05）. Overall，for the index of harringtonine and homoharringtonine yield of branches and leaves，superior medicinal provenances such as Wuyishan and Zherong in Fujian Province were selected.［Ch，8 tab. 14 ref.］