Study on the seed phenotypic variation of Sophora japonica L. in different populations

Seed phenotypic characteristics for 130 families in 7 populations of Sophora japonica Linn including seed length,seed width,ratio of seed width and length,seed surface area,seed volume and 1000-seed weight were studied in order to reveal phenotypic variation and variation patterns in different districts.Phenotypic variation among and within populations was analyzed by using variance analysis and correlation analysis.Results showed that different extent of variation exited in phenotypic characteristics of seed,coefficient of variation ranged from 5.24% to 14.57%.There were significant differences among and within populations in 6 seed characteristics.The average of differentiation coefficent among populations was 53.11%,which was higher than that within population.The seed characteristics didn't change with latitude and longitude,7 populations of S.japonica were divided into 3 groups by using hierarchical clustering analysis.There was no obvious geological variation due to wide cultivation or discontinuous sampling.