Geographic Variations in Seed Characters Among Different Provenances of Sapium sebiferum

The geographic variations among different provenances of Sapium sebiferum seeds were researched. The results showed that there were significant differences in the mass of 100 seed with testa wax (MSW) value among the provenances determined (F=4.52，P＜0.01). The seed size of 7 provenances was large, and the MSW value was over 14g, which belonged to large seed type. The seed size of 3 provenances was small, and the MSW value was below 10g, which belonged to small seed type. Whereas the seed size of the provenances belonged to the intermediate type, whose MSW value was between 10g to 14g. The MSW value of the 4 provenances from Xinning County of Hunan Province, Shangrao County of Jiangxi Province, Fangxian County of Hubei Province, and Ninghai County of Zhejiang Province was the largest, which were recommended as large seed provenance sources for superior germplasm selection. The mass of 100 dewaxed seeds (MDS) value of 9 provenances from Longli County, Kaiyang County and Daozhen County of Guizhou Province, Guangyuan County of Sichuan Province, Fangxian County of Hubei Province, Xinjian County, Yudu County and Shangrao County of Jiangxi Province, and from Yangchun County of Guangdong Province was higher(75%-90%), which were recommended as stillingia oil producing provenance sources for superior germplasm selection. The MDS value of 8 provenances from Hangzhou Municipality of Zhejiang Province, Nanning Municipality of Guangxi, Suichuan County of Jiangxi Province, Shiqian County of Guizhou Province, Xinning County of Hunan Province, Huangshan Municipality and Guichi County of Anhui Province was relatively lower (60%-70%), which were recommended as testa oil producing provenance sources for superior germplasm selection. The correlation analyses showed that the annual mean temperature and the accumulated temperature over 10℃ were the main environmental factors affecting the seed characters of S. sebiferum.