Abstract:
The preliminary analyses on the growth of 174 Eucalyptus spp. clones were conducted in southwestern Guizhou Province. Seven growth traits were analyzed including the tree height at the 7th month old, the plant height, DBH and standing volume individually of the 20monthold and the 34monthold saplings. The results showed that there were significant differences in the all above growth traits at 0.01 level. The general heritability (H2) ranged from 0.21 (H7) to 0.46 (H34), indicating that the early growth of the Eucalyptus spp. clones was slightly to moderately controlled by genetic heritability. The phenotypic correlations among the early growth traits were positively significant at 0.01 level. Six clones were preliminarily selected out based on the performance of the survival rate and the standing volume of 34monthold saplings vs. the control clone DH 3229. The preliminary study results would provide the intermediate experiments with useful candidate materials in the studied area.