Li Jiajue, Zhao Qianlong¹ &  Cheng Fangyun²

CLASSIFICATION STUDY ON THE CHINESE MOUTAN AND THE MOUTAN BREEDING

Acta Horticulturae, 404, July 1995, pp. 118-122

¹ Lanzhou Arboretum, Lanzhou Jiouzhoutai 730070, Gansu, PR China            

²Department of Biology, Northwest Normal University,Lanzhou, 730070, China

This paper reported the recent advances made in the classification study on the Chinese moutan, that four wild species related closely to the origination of Chinese cultured moutan, main cultivar groups and their distribution regions, relationship both between these wild species and cultivar groups and among the cultivar groups were identified basically, detailed the formation and characters of three larger cultivar groups of Chinese rnoutan and their irreplaceable position and action in the breeding, and discussed the relationship between the wild species only distributing in China and the cultured moutan at home and abroad. It will give you a new idea about Chinese moutan.

Correct classification of the species and cultivars of horticulture plants is an important basis of breeding. Tree-peony, Moutan or Mudan belongs to Sect. Moutan, paeonie, paeoniaceae and is a famous horticulture plant of China origin. For many years, some basic taxonomical problems of moutan species remained unsolved better so as to confine the establishment of cultivar classification system and its breeding work Since 1989, some Chinese scholars have made an important progress in the classification of moutan species and cultivars which made it more clear the purpose, method and procedure of Chinese moutan breeding.

1. Recent advances in the classification study on Chinese moutan

Form 1989 to 1992, some results in the moutan study gave us a new idea about Chinese moutan. Here we can discuss them in three respects.

1.1. The wild species related closely to cultured montan have been identified basically. They are

Jishan moutan (Paeonia jishanesis T Hong et W.Z zhao) that distributes in some forest areas of loess plateau of Shanxi and Shaanxi province,

Yangshan moutan (P. ostii T. Hong et J.X. Zhang ) that distributes along the Qinlin mountains west to southeast Gansu Province, east to southwest Henan Province, and south to west Hubei Province and northwest Henan Province,

Yanan moutan (P. yananesis E. Hong et. M.R. Li) that distributes only in the Wanhua Mountain of Yanan (Shaanxi Province) and

Purple-blotched moutan (P. rockii T Hong et J.J. Li) that distributes widely in the Qinlin and Daba mountains, west to southeast Gansu and northwest Sichuan, east to southeast Henan, south to west Hebei (Shen Nong Jia) and north to some secondary forest areas of Longdong (East Gansu province) and Shaanbei (North Shaanxi province).

1.2 The main cultivar groups of Chinese moutan and their characters and distribution have been identified basically. In fact, several cultivar groups have formed in China and this changed the traditional idea that Chinese moutan had only one cultivar group. At present, Chinese moutan has mainly three larger cultivar groups.

1.2.1. Zhongyuan cultivar group: Its culture centre is in Heze of Shandong Province and Luoyang of Henan Province.

1.2 2. Gansu cultivar group : Its culture centre is in Linxia, Lintao and Lanzhou of Gansu Province.

1.2 3. Jiangnan cultivar group: Its culture centre is in Ningguo and Tuongling of Anhui Province

Otherwise, there are still other smaller cultivar groups, e. g. Yanan cultivar group (Shanxi Province) and Tiangpen cultivar group (Sichuan Province) etc.

1.3. Identify initially the affinities both between the present cultivar group and the wild species distributing in the loess plateau and Qin-Ling mountains in China and among the cultivar groups.

Depending on the records concerned and the investigation, comparison and analysis of the distribution area of wild species and cultivars, we may summarized preliminarily the relationship between wild moutan only distributing in China and cultured moutan at home and abroad as in fig 1.

2. Formation and characters of three larger cultivar groups of Chinese Moutan

2.1. Zhongyuan cultivar Group

This is, at present, the largest cultured cultivar group of Chinese moutan. It distributed principally in the plain area of middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, This cultivar group started developing as early as the Sui Dynasty (581-618). To the Tang Dynasty (618-907), particularly to the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), the pick cultivar of Chinese moutan from different parts of the country had gathered together in this cultivar group. Afterwards, the culture centre had changed several times, but the keyline of migration just lay in the areas between the loess plateau and Qin- Lin mountains where the climate and soil were suitable for the growth of moutan and closer to the politics and economic centres of every Dynasty of ancient China. As a result, moutan can hand down from generation to generation. Now this cultivar group has about more than 460 cultivars. The wild species distributing in the loess plateau and Qin-Lin mountains all have a close relation to its origin and, therefore, it is of polyphylesis. We found that the seedling morphology of this cultivar group role in its formation and development.

The major culture areas of Zhongyuan cultivar group are at an altitude of 50-350 m, annual average temperature 13.0-14.5°C, the lowest positive temperature -20 to -18°C the accumulated temperature of <l0°C 4300 - 4800°C and annual rainfall 600 -700 mm.

2.2 Gansu cultivar group

This is the secondary larger cultivar group of Chinese moutan, and it distributes in whole Gansu, South Ningxia, East Qinghai and West Shaanxi. The culture history of this cultivar group may trace back to Tang Dynasty of ancient China, but its rapid development was in Ming and d Qing Dynasties. Now, it has more than 100 cultivars which originated form the purple-blotched moutan distributing in the forest of Mid-South and East Gansu. The altitude of distribution region is higher, generally above 1 000 m highest to 2800-3 000 m Annual average temperature is 51 -10 7°C, the lowest positive temperature -29.6°C, the accumulated temperature of > 10°C 1600 - 3800 °C and annual rainfall 350-600 mm

2.3 Jiangnan cultivar group

This cultivar group may also trace back to Tang Dynasty, but it, afterwards, rose and fell several times and, up to now, remains only just more than 20 cultivars. The cultivar group came from Yangshan moutan and meanwhile Zhongyuan moutan affected it for a long time. The main medical cultivar "Fen Dan Bai" (white phoenix moutan) belongs to this cultivar group. Jiangnan that locates in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, is a damper and hotter region of the Chinese moutan culture regions Its altitude is 4.5-89.4 m, annual average temperature 11.5-16.2°C, the accumulated temperature of >10°C 4000 - 5300 °C, the lowest positive temperature -18 to -10°C, the highest positive temperature 39-41°C and annual rainfall 1300-1600 mm.

Owing to the differences in the origination, the climate and soil condition of distribution ranges, three larger cultivar groups mentioned above differ greatly form each other in the ecological habit, growth and development characters and so on Here. we only cite Zhongyun and Gausu cultivar groups and list their differences in some main characters as in table 1.

Table 1 - Comparison of main characters between zhongyuan and gansu cultivar groups of Chinese moutan

3. Position and action of three larger cultivar groups in the breeding of Chinese Moutan

Formation of three larger cultivar groups will affect greatly the breeding of Chinese Moutan. Each of them has an irreplaceable position and action, and meanwhile they may make up each other's deficiencies. By the way of introduction and hybridization, some weakness existing in cultured moutan population could be purposefully got over as a whole.

3.1. Having rich cultivar resource, various flower type and colour and leaf shape. Zhongyuan cultivar group is an important gene resource to improve the ornamental characters of other cultivar groups. Many cultivars of Zhongyuan montan have a tendency of close and dwarf plant-form, which may breed selectively in the direction of microminiaturization. The below problems still needs to be solved in the cultivar improvement of this cultivar group.

(1) Enrich rather flower colour. For example, introduce the wild P. lutea var. ludlowii and P. delavayi to hybrid and breed the cultivars of which flowers are deep-yellow, fresh yellow and purple-red, deep blue-purple and so on.

(2) Take advantage of Gansu and other cultivar groups to breed the cultivars with stronger resistance and higher stem and prolong the blooming period of population.

3.2. Gansu cultivar group has many good characters such as strong resistance to coldness and drought, rare diseases and pests, luxuriant bloom, fragrant smell and so on. It is a good germplasm which should be put into use for extending moutan cultured regions to some colder areas of North China. This cultivar group on the basis of retaining itself distinguishing features, it also faces the difficulties such as enriching flower colour, extending the booming period of population and so on. For advancing the blooming period, some regions may introduce and use some cultivars of Zhongyuan cultivar group with stronger resistance.

3.3. With tolerating fairly damp and hot, Jiangnan cultivar group is an important basis to breed Chinese cultivars resisting damp and hot and for moutan cultured region to move southwards. This cultivar group should enrich further flower type and colour on the basis of "Fen Dan" and male parentage was Zhongyuan cultivar, could grow and bloom as usual when they were introduced to Tongling (Anhui Province) and other areas of South China, Otherwise, this cultivar group may also be improved by introducing and using the Japanese cultivars.

References

Hong Tao, Zhang Jiaxun, Li Jiajue, Zhao Wenzhong, Li Mingrui (1992): study on the Chinese wild woody peonies (1) New taxa ofpaenoia L sect moutan DC., Bulletin of botanical research 12 (3): 223-233.

Li Jiajue (1989). Linxia Mudan, BeiJing science and Technology Publishing, House,Beijing (In Chinese)

Yu Heng (1989). Mudan Flower, shanghai science and Technology publishing House, Shanghai (In Chinese).