Present Situation of Eucalypts Breeding and Future Prospect in China

Breeding is the major procedure in forest research. The basic goal in all of breeding program is to expand the frequency of favorable alleles or the frequency of specific combinations of favorable alleles in the breeding populations through recurrent selection in order to improve the performance of individual plants. During the past three decades, an increase in research on breeding has improved Eucalyptus productivity, and to some extent our standing of their effects on tree growth and on wood properties. Unfortunately, very little information about breeding on the review of Eucalyptus grown in China has been published even though this species was introduced some 120 years ago. This paper reviews the available information regarding research status and prospect of breeding under Chinese ecological conditions and to outline some suggestions to them. According to the present research situation of breeding, we would recommend that: generalizing empirical and useful practices; developing high- value products; creating more clones for demand; carrying out intensively research over different species and clones for different cultivation goals at different sites over time; above all, applying breeding strategy, especially for multiple generations and interspecific hybrid breeding.