A Study on Yield and Fatty Acid Variation in Camellia reticulate

Three natural stands and three artificial populations of Camellia reticulate were invested and analyzed on their variance of yield and fatty acid composition.The results showed that there was little difference in yield and fatty acid composition between the natural stands and the artificial populations,but there was wide variation in yield and fatty acid composition for the natural stands and the artificial populations respectively.For example,the yield per plant was 96.16%in the three natural stands.There were significant differences in all the yield indexes among the 6 populations while there were statistically significant differences in few indexes of fatty acid composition.Statistical analysis showed that there was little correlation between oleic acid and linoleic acid contents while lower correlations were observed between yield and oleic acid and linoleic acid,suggesting that some new types with high yield and good quality in Camellia reticulate might be bred.In addition,this study proposed that selective breeding of Camellia reticulate should mainly focus on its natural population.