Provenance Difference and Geographic Variation Pattern for Seedling Trait of Schima superba

Schima superba provenance trails including 36 seed sources from 7 provinces, located at Chun'an City of Zhejiang and Jianou City of Fujian, were used to study geographic variation for 12 seedling characteristics (seedling growth, root character and leaf shape,etc.).The result of variance analysis indicated that there existed significant differences among provenances for nine seedling traits except for taproot length, lateral root length and aged leaf color in late autumn. A classical latitude clinal variation pattern was found for seedling height, leaf character (number, width, thickness), and tender leaf color in late autumn, and the local temperature of seed sources was the main climatic factor which led to the variation pattern. Compared with the northern provenances, the southern ones had higher growth rate and more leaves, however,the leaf became thinner and narrower. Color change of tender leaf of southern provenances was sensitive to cold signal in late autumn. In addition, the precipitation amount of seed sources was main factor effecting phenotypic differences of seed traits. At last, recommended for seedling height, 10 superior provenances were selected respectively for two experimental locations and these provenances almost came from the natural distribution area about at latitude 25° N.