A study on morphological variation of pods and seeds of Medicago falcata collected from Zhaosu,Xinjiang

The regulation of morphological variation and the relationship of different populations of Medicago falcata were studied using eight natural populations collected from Zhaosu Xinjiang and researching the phenotypic traits of their pods and seeds.The differences among populations and between individuals within populations were analyzed and correlations between traits and geographic factors were investigated.There were significant differences of some characters but not of pod length/width between populations.Within populations,there were significant differences in pod width,seed color,and seed width.The variation among populations was more than that within populations except for seed color.Coefficient of variation of 100-seed weights and shape of the pods were 0.540 and 0.535 respectively between populations,while the coefficient of variation of seed color within populations was 0.554.The main differences between regional populations were in seed size,seed numbers per pod and pod shape.There were positive correlations between length of pod and altitude.Eight populations were divided into 4 categories: large pods,large seeds,little seeds and the medium type based on UPGMA Euclidean distance cluster analysis.