Comprehensive Evaluation and Selection of Hybrid Offsprings of Large-Flowered Tea Chrysanthemum

The purpose was to establish an evaluation system to screen out elite hybrid lines of large-flowered tea chrysanthemum, so as to provide a theory reference and material base for the breeding of new varieties.

A total of 20 factors representative of agronomic traits, sensory quality, and active ingredient were investigated for 46 F₁ offsprings derived from maternal large-flowered tea chrysanthemum Jinsi Huangju and for five parental cultivars, including dry flower weight, ray floret number, florescence, plant height, crown diameter, number of flowers per plant, yield of dry flower, drought resistance, disease resistance, dry flower diameter, dry flower type, dry flower color, aroma, liquor flower type, liquor flower color, taste, total flavones, chlorogenic acid, luteolin glycosides, and iso-chlorogenic acid A. The analytic hierarchy process and K-Means cluster analysis were used to establish a comprehensive evaluation system for assessing the hybrid offsprings.

Through the observation and analysis of the characters of F₁ offsprings of large-flowered tea chrysanthemum, the results showed that the flowering period of most F₁ offsprings was relatively late. Compared with ‘Jinsi Huangju’, the drought resistance of F₁ offsprings was improved to a certain extent, but the disease resistance was average. The inflorescence-related ornamental traits of the most F₁ offspring were generally improved, but the flower diameter was not significantly increased, and the performances of growth, yield and taste traits were not improved as expected. The weight of the 20 factors was determined by analytic hierarchy process, and the result showed that dry flower diameter shared the largest weight value of 0.148, followed by liquor flower type, liquor flower color, and taste with a weight value of 0.084, florescence and yield of dry flower with a weight value of 0.080. The K-Means cluster analysis divided the investigated materials into 3 grades, i.e., 6 superior, 29 good, and 16 poor accessions, accounted for 11.76%, 56.86%, and 31.37%, respectively. Among them, compared with Jinsi Huangju, the superior F₁ offsprings showed heavier fresh flower weight, wider and thicker petals, and more petals, more pure and bright color, higher active ingredients, which could be further conducted regional test.

The evaluation system of large-flowered tea chrysanthemum was established by the analytic hierarchy process and K-Means cluster analysis, and 5 elite hybrid lines with good agronomic traits, strong resistance, high quality were screened out for future breeding use.