Selection and breeding of superior clones of Cornus officinalis

As a precious traditional Chinese medicine , Cornus officinalis has been in wild or semi-wild conditions for a long time and the genetic variations within its species are very complicated .Through breeding procedures including preliminary selection , reselection and clonal tests of superior individual trees from natural resources , 10 superior clones , which are large in fruit size , thick in sarcocarp and high in the percentage of dry sarcocarp and good in processing properties , have been selected .Their yields (of dry sarcocarp)at early stage (4 ～ 7 years) are 24.66 %～ 82.44 %higher than the average value of 71 tested clones .In addition , a specially early-maturing clone and a clone containing more sugars have been singled out .Eleven clones out of these clones pass the examination and appraisal conducted by the Examination and Appraisal Committee of Zhejiang Province for Superior Forest Species and Varieties in 2002 and are denominated .[ Ch , 2 tab .7 ref .]