RESOURCES AND BREEDING OF ORNAMENTAL APRICOT IN CHINA

‘Mei Flower’ (Prunus mume Sieb. et Zucc.), which is also known as ‘Mei Hua’, ‘Plum blossom’ or ‘Japanese apricot’, has played an important role in Chinese culture for many centuries and bestowed both aesthetics value and spiritual sustenance on the Chinese.
It is not cold hardy and cannot be grown in northern China.
Found when exploring the national apricot germplasm resources during 1979-1986, wild Liaomeixing ［P. sibirica (L.) Lam. var. pleniflora J.Y. Zhang et al.］ and Shaanmeixing (P. armeniaca L. var. meixinesis J.Y. Zhang et al.) not only can favourably compare with ‘Mei Flower’ in ornamental value but also are much hardier than it, therefore they may be cultivated in North China as an analogous ‘Mei Flower’. In this paper, we introduced the botanical features, biological characteristics, ornamental value, culti¬vated technology of two new botanical varieties of apricot species, and the breeding of diverse ornamental apricot cultivars in China.

XIV International Symposium on Apricot Breeding and Culture

W. Liu, N. Liu, X. Yu, Y. Zhang, M. Sun, M. Xu

ornamental, apricot, resources, breeding, Prunus mume, Prunus armeniaca, Prunus sibirica

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2010.862.5