Provenance Test of Xanthoceras sorbifolia in Seedling Stage

The nursery seed germination, phenology, growth rhythm of oneyearold and twoyearold seedlings of 6 provenances of Xanthoceras sorbifolia were comparatively studied. The results showed that the nursery seed germination,height and basal diameter of the oneyearold seedlings of provenances of Mengshan in Shandong and Wengniute County in Inner Mongolia were superior to those of the other four species. Owing to the better water and heat conditions, the sprouting stage, leaf expansion stage, flowering stage and fruiting stage of the twoyearold seedlings from provenances of Wengniute County in Inner Mongolia, Chunhua County in Shanxi, Lingtai County in Gansu, Xunhua County in Qinghai and Kongliu County in Xinjiang advanced correspondingly. In terms of growth rhythm, the provenances of Wengniute County, Mengshan County and Lingtai County were fastgrowingtype in rainy season, while that of Chunhua County, Kongliu County and Xunhua County were slowgrowingtype in the rainy season. The broadsense heritability for height and basal diameter of the 6 provenances varied from 0.898 to 0.966, and the variance components of basal diameter and seedling height of the 6 provenances varied from 7536% to 84.11% and 72.86% to 88.05% individually. The average genetic gain for height and basal diameter of Mengshan County provenance and Chunhua County provenance was 16.53% and 8.42%, respectively.