A comparison of quantitative characters of leaf and flower in camellia japonica, C. pitardii, C. reticulata and C. saluenensis.

Abstract

Camellia japonica (2x) grown naturally in Japan and C. pitardii var. pitardii (2x), C. pitardii var. yulenaleica (6x), C. reticulata (6x) and C, saluenelesis (2x) all grown naturally in Yunnan, the People's Republic of China were computatively compared on the basis of the following slx quantitative characters: (1) petal length; (2) petal width; (3) petal area; (4) Ieaf length; (5) Ieaf width; and (6) Ieaf area. The scatter diagrams of the leaf characters showed character correlation and the main close-relatlonship order of the C. saluenensis-japonica, itardii var. yunnanicaTpitardii var. pitardii-reticulata. The close-relationships proportional to the size of the flowers suggested the successive order of C. salueleensisjapoleica-pitardii var. pitardii-pitardii var. yunnanica-reticulata. Although the size of leaves in C. reticulata from Tengchong, Yunnan, was twice as large as that in C. saluenensls, the ratios of leaf width of both species were quite similar to each other, 2.335 and 2.337, respectrvely Some plants of C. reticulata from Tengchong were morphologlcally quite similar to C. japonica. Camellia pitardii var. yunnanica was consldered conspecific with C. reticulata. Artificial crosses among the four species were readily made. The present biosystematic approach showed the five taxa to be quite closely related to each other and to be isolated only by their geographical distribution.