Geographical Distribution and Morphology of Wild Tea Germplasm Resources in Guizhou and Its Relationship with Climatic Factors

In order to explore geographical distribution and morphology of old wild tea plants in Guizhou and clarify their relationship with climatic factors based on canonical and pearson correlation analysis, the eighty-one wild tea plants germplasm resources whose age were more than 100 years old were collected from natural condition in Guizhou. Eighty-one wild tea plants were classified as four species and two varietics of Sect. Thea(L.) Dyer.Nine plants of C. tachangensis were maily distributed in the in the southwestern Guizhou with high temperature and humidity. Nine plants of C. gymnogya were mainly distributed in northwestern Guizhou with similar climatic condition. One plant of C. crassicolumna was located in Malu town in Jinsha County. Three plants of C. assamica were distributed in the border of Guangxi and Guizhou provinces with higher temperature and humidity. Fifty-nine plants of C. sinensis, mainly distributed in the central and western Guizhou, were widely scattered in Guizhou province. By means of canonical correlation analysis, climatic factors had a great impact on geographic distribution of these eighty-one wild tea germplasm. For example, annual precipitation, annual mean air temperature and annual extreme minimum air temperature showed a more significant impact on the geographic distribution of C.gymnogya. C. gymnogya, C. crassicolumna and C. tachangensis species were arbor and large leaf with leather or thin leather. The C. assamica species was semi-arbor and large leaf without leather. The fifty-nine C. sinensis plants with diverse morphology, mainly consisted of middle shaped leaf varieties, and their leaf area was moderately positively correlated with annual extreme maximum air temperature( r=0.28, P0.05). It was concluded that Guizhou possibly existed original distribution centers of wild tea plants containing C. gymnogya, C.tachangensis and C. sinensis species, and climatic factors influenced their geographic distribution, evolution and partial morphology.