Variation of Growth and Physiological Traits of Hybrid Progeny of Olea europaea

The F₁ generation seedlings were obtained by crossing 4 Olea europaea varieties, including ‘Chenggu32’, ‘Ezhi8’, ‘Lecciono’, ‘Picholine’, and the genetic variation analysis, correlation analysis and principal component analysis of the 2-year-old growth traits and physiological traits of the seedlings were carried out to select the excellent growth plants. Results show that except for the variation of P_n, there are large variations in other traits, and the coefficient of variation of the total length of Class Ⅰ branches is the largest. The seedling height, ground diameter, trunk length, P_n, F_v/F_m and PI are not significantly different between the female parent and the female parent. The Class Ⅰ branch number and the total length of the branch are in the female parent. The difference is not significant, but the difference between the parents in the female parent is significant. The correlation between F_v/F_m, PI and growth traits was not significant. The cumulative contribution rate of Prin1 and Prin2 by PCA is 81.883%. Therefore, different mother genotypes are not the main source of trait variation of seedlings and different father genotypes of among mother genotypes are the major source of variation in primary branches’ number and total length. Variation mainly came from mother genotypes or the interaction between mother and father genotypes. In the early selection of O. europaea progeny seedlings, tree height and ground diameter are not only be used as early selection indexes of growth vigor but the number and total length of primary branches. Using Prin1 and Prin2 of PCA, 19 seedlings are selected with excellent growth vigor and branching ability.