Study on Variation of Seedling Leaf Traits of Populus yunnanensis Plus Tree Clones

The variation of leaf traits of one-year-old seedlings was observed with 52 Populus yunnanensis plus trees collected from 5 habitats and propagated by branch cuttage.The results showed that variance coefficient of leaf length,leaf width,ratio of leaf length/leaf width,the distance from widest point to leaf base width/leaf length,petiole length/leaf length differed to a certain degree,and the 52 clones could be classified into different phenotypes according to the variance of each leaf trait.Based on the Euclidean distance,the 52 plus trees were divided into 4 groups at 10 thresholds by maximum distance clustering analysis.It was showed by the study that the phenotypic variation of the plus trees was not related to their geographical habitat.The combination of three studied leaf traits constituted plentiful leaf types of P.yunnanensis.