Unique Ornamental Plant Genetic Resources and Breeding in China

Authors Zhang, Qi-Xiang; Pan, Hui-Tang; Sun, Ming; Yang, Wei-Yu; Wang, Jia

Journal XXVIII INTERNATIONAL HORTICULTURAL CONGRESS ON SCIENCE AND HORTICULTURE FOR PEOPLE (IHC2010): INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON ADVANCES IN ORNAMENTALS, LANDSCAPE AND URBAN HORTICULTURE , 2012,:937

Abstract China has profuse ornamental plant resources and over 3000 years'' cultivating history. However, the commercial flower production emerged from the beginning of 1980s in this country, and experienced a rapid development in past nearly 30 years. Till 2009, China has been the country with the largest area of flower production - of ca. 824,000 hectares - in the World. Meanwhile, many researches on plant genetic resources exploitation and ornamental plants breeding had been carried out to develop new floral crops and to breed new cultivars. After nearly 10 years of investigation and evaluation of wild plant species and some cultivated species around the China, more than 6000 species were rated potential as ornamental plants, and about 1000 species could be directly used in gardens or in flower production, in which more than 100 wild ornamental species were successfully used in urban spaces. The genetic diversity of some unique ornamental plants in China (include Prunus mume, Chrysanthemum morifolium, Paeonia spp., Rosa rugosa, Lilium spp., Primula spp., Chimonanthus spp., Cymbidium spp., Lagerstroemia spp., Rhododendron spp., et al.) were investigated by morphological traits and molecular markers. Many new cultivars were bred by hybridization, sport selection and other breeding methods, especially in Rosa, Prunus mume, Paeonia suffruticosa, Cymbidium and Primula, and some of them are now commercially produced in China.

Species covered 牡丹 Paeonia suffruticosa 玫瑰 Rosa rugosa 芍药属 Paeonia 报春花属 Primula 兰属 Cymbidium 杜鹃属 Rhododendron