Huaqing Li

Neolamarckia cadamba is an indigenous, timber-producing tree species in Southern China that plays an important role in the sustainable development of the local forestry industry. However, the geographic genetic variation across its natural distribution area in Southern China has yet to be characterized for best utilization. Here, we report the geographic genetic variation in growth and wood properties of N. cadamba from 10 provenances that represent the entire natural distribution of N. cadamba in Southern China. There was significant geographic variation in diameter breast height (DBH), height (H), volume (V), vessel length (VL), vessel diameter (VD), VL/VD, and wood basic density (WBD). The variation in tree volume across provenances was greater than that of other growth traits, indicating that volume has a greater potential for selection in provenance trials. The provenance heritabilities of growth traits and wood properties ranged from 0.59 to 0.67 and from 0.40 to 0.45, respectively. Trend surface analysis revealed that patterns of geographic variation associated with growth traits were weakly negatively correlated with those of wood properties. The pattern of geographic variation in growth traits showed a gradual increase from the periphery to the central region, whereas wood properties showed the opposite pattern, and latitude had the greatest effect on both. Wood property measurements suggested that the YNMS provenance produced superior timber wood, whereas the GXLZ, GXFCG, and GXNN provenances produced the best pulpwood. These provenances could potentially provide more valuable breeding materials for the genetic improvement of N. cadamba.

Neolamarckia cadamba (Roxb.) Bosser is a tropical evergreen broadleaf tree species that could play an important role in meeting the increasing demand for wood products. However, multi-level genetic variation and selection efficiency for growth traits in N. cadamba is poorly characterized. We therefore investigated the efficiency of early selection in N. cadamba by monitoring the height (HT), diameter at breast height (DBH), and tree volume (V) in 39 half-sib families from 11 provenances at ages 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 years in a progeny test. Age-related trends in growth rate, genetic parameters in multi-level, efficiency of early selection, and realized gain in multi-level for growth traits were analyzed. The result showed that genetic variation among families within provenances was higher than that among provenances. The estimated individual heritability values for the growth traits ranged from 0.05 to 0.26, indicating that the variation of growth traits in N. cadamba was subject to weak or intermediate genetic control. The age–age genetic correlations for growth traits were always positive and high (0.51–0.99), and the relationships between the genetic/phenotypic correlations and the logarithm of the age ratio (LAR) were described well by linear models (R² > 0.85, except the fitting coefficient of genetic correlation and LAR for HT was 0.35). On the basis of an early selection efficiency analysis, we found that it is the best time to perform early selection for N. cadamba at age 5 before half-rotation, and the selection efficiencies were 157.28%, 151.56%, and 127.08% for V, DBH, and HT, respectively. Higher realized gain can be obtained by selecting superior trees from superior families. These results can be expected to provide theoretical guidance and materials for breeding programs in N. cadamba and can even be a reference for breeding strategies of other fast-growing tree species.