Early evaluation on fast-growth and stability of introduced Pinus taeda families

In comparison with slash pine, which was introduced earlier from abroad, and the native mason pine, the five-year-old loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) families, which was introduced into Fujian Province, were evaluated. The results indicated that there were significant or great significant differences in families, gene and site mutual variance. Loblolly pine grew more quickly than slash pine and mason pine. By synthesizing clustering analysis, 25 loblolly pine families were divided into 4 groups, i. e. best, better, moderate and poor. Compared to mason pine, the actual gains of loblolly pine families were 83.2%, 63.4%, 48.5% and 33.7%, respectively. Using gene grouping means to evaluate the fast-growth and stability of loblolly pine families, No. 19, 25, 18, 21 and 10 families had superior gene type, which grew fast and varied little.