Two genetic trails including eight seed sources of three native Aesculus species and twenty plus tree families of A.chinensis var.chekiangensis from Tonglu of Zhejiang were used to explore the genetic variation between and within Aesculus species for seed,growth and morphology traits at seedling and young stage.The results demonstrated that there were significant differences for growth and morphology characteristics among eight provenances of three Aesculus species.Among three Aesculus species,seeds of A.wilsonii were the biggest,seeds of A.chinensis the middle and seeds of A.chinensis var.chekiangensis the least.Seed sources of A.wilsonii with bigger seeds were generally from the southern and southwestern areas.It was found that the species/provenances from the seed sources with big seeds possessed greater seedling growth,extensive tap and lateral root system,and larger leaves.Seedling test result of species/provenance growth was not used to predicted the growth performance at young stage,because of marked seed maternal effect.A.chinensis var.chekiangensis from Lin’an of Zhejiang with least seeds have best growth performance,and while A.wilsonii from Mabian of Sichuan with biggest seeds exhibited mediate growth performance at age two.Moreover,there existed rich family variation for growth and morphology of seedling and young trees in A.chinensis var.chekiangensis.Seedling growth of families was significantly and positively related to their young tree growth.Early selection of growth traits could conduct at seedling stage.
