Germplasm resources and breeding of mei, an ornamental woody plant

摘要

Mei (Prunus mume Sieb.et Zucc), originated in the Hengduan Mountains region in China, has been domesticated as an important ornamental and fruit plant for more than 3,000 years. The distribution of germplasm resources of mei and its cold-resistance breeding and new cultivar breeding for both flower and fruit purposes had been reviewed. Mei has an abundant wild and semi-wild resources mainly distributed in southwestern China. Through long-term selection and breeding, mei has been domesticated to yieldabout 380 cultivars in 15 distinct regions of 20 Chinese provinces, some of which survive more than two hundred years (known as ancient mei). There are 75 ancient mei identified in six southwestern and southeastern provinces. Also, tremendous effort hasbeen made to select mei for its cold hardiness, especially 'Three-North Areas' of China. By crossbreeding with apricot, a much cold-hardy species and many cold-resistance cultivars, such as 'Yan Xing', 'Una Hudie', and 'Shan Taobai', had been cultivatedin the past 60 years. These cultivars could tolerate and resist cold temperature of -15 to -35°C. Furthermore, according to the criteria developed on the basis of field investigations of mei cultivars in six provinces, several new cultivars for both flowers and fruits that including 'Yanwen Fenghou', 'Yulong Hongfei' and 'Judian No. V were selected and introduced. As an ornamental woody plant, mei has proven itself to be an important model plant for studying the evolution and diversification of genusPrunus.