Seed variation and early growth performance of Aquilaria sinensis provenance or family in Guangdong and Hainan

Aquilaria sinensis is a main precious medicinal species in traditional Chinese medicine production. In thisstudy, seven provenances of A. sinensis from Guangdong and Hainan provinces were planted at Tianhe-Guangzhou city foranalyzing their early growth performance. The results showed that there were significant differences in thousand-seed weight, seed size, nursery germination rate, 0.5-year seedling height, 3-year height and 3-year diameter-at-breast height (DBH) among their provenances or families. A. sinensis thousand-seed weight per average was 182.96 g, average seed area was 0.86 cm2, average nursery germination rate was 39.09%, 0.5-year average seed height was 0.22 m, average 3-yearheight and 3-year DBH were 2.68 m and 2.75 cm. The thousand-seed weight, seed size and nursery germination rate of A . sinensis had extremely significant positive correlation, and had positive correlation with height. With comprehensive selection, Uis study identified 2 excellent provenances and 16 excellent families in Dianbai Guangdong and Lingao Hainan,the numbers of selected family were 7 and 9 in Guangdong and Hainan provinces, and their mean selecting gains of height and DBH were 8.5% and 20.43%, respectively.