Morphological variation of Medicago falcata pods and seeds in Xinjiang

In order to reveal phenotypic variation and variation patterns in different districts across Xinjiang province, 13 populations of wild Medicago falcata were taken as experimental materials and pod length, pod width, seeds number per pod, seed length, seed width and 1 000seedweight were measured. Phenotypic variations among and within populations were analyzed using variance analysis and correlation analysis. The results showed that, various characters of Medicago Falcata groups had significant differences. Pod length, pod width, seeds number per pod, seed length and seed width all have a significant positive correlation with 1 000seed weight. Hierarchical cluster analysis revealed these 13 populations were divided into three groups: 1) Altai; 2) BeiTun, TaCheng and FuYun; and 3) BuErJin, YuMin, EMin, HaBahe, Tekesi, JiMunai, Urumqi of Nanshan, FuHai and ChaBuchaer. These findings can offer basic data for further study of conservation biology and genetic breeding of this species.