CROP WILD RELATIVES

Tibet is one of the main distribution centers of wild Fragaria species in China. There are abundant, precious and rare wild strawberry resources. This paper focused on the classification, distribution and evaluation of the 65 wild strawberry accessions collected from 17 counties in Tibet. The main taxonomical characters, such as stolon branching, leaflet type, flower sex, fruit shape, status of achene and sepal, and chromosome number were observed for each accession. All accessions were identified and classified into seven Fragaria species and two forms, including F. daltoniana J. Gay (2x), F. nilgerrensis Schlecht. (2x), F. nubicola Lindl. (2x), F. pentaphylla Losinsk. (2x), F. gracilis A. Los. (4x), F. moupinensis (French.) Card. (4x) and F. tibetica Staudt et Dickoré. (4x). The two white-fruited forms were F. nubicola f. alba (2x) and F. moupinensis f. alba (4x). The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method was used to perform a comprehensive assessment on the value of seven Fragaria species and two forms. The results showed that F. nilgerrensis had better fruit quality, disease resistance and waterlogging tolerance than any other species in Tibet. The collection and identification of wild strawberry resources in Tibet would be helpful to improve the fruit quality and stress resistance of modern strawberry cultivars.