Phenotypic diversity of Lilium browninative to Qinba mountainous area.

In order to reveal the phenotypic variation of Lilium brownii in natural populations native to Qinba moun-tainous area, and to discuss the relationship between phenotypic variation of natural populations, a systematic investi-gation was carried out among 17 natural populations in this area, containing 21 quantitative traits and 8 qualitative traits of both the flowers and the leaves.The results were as follows:with a strong adaptability, L .brownii had a wide distribution range of this area, most of them lived in mountains at an altitude height varying from 705 m to 1 913 m;Rich variation took place in the phenotypic traits.The length of the top leaves had a notably positive correlation with latitude, the width of the stigmas and the length of the top leaves had a notably positive correlation with altitude, the bottom leaf spacing had a notably positive correlation with the annual precipitation, while the length of pedicel and the length of the top leaves had a significantly negative correlation with the mean annual temperature;L .brownii n-ative to Qinba mountainous area could be divided into 2 groups:Group Qinling and Group Bashan, according to the re-sults of UPGMA cluster analysis.These findings may offer basic data for further studies on genetic breeding and con-servation biology of L .brownii . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]