A PRELIMINARY STUDY ON THE BREEDING OF NEW CHINESE LOTUS CULTIVARS OF HIGH YIELD AND FINE QUALITY

This paper reports the results of spot investigation, introduction and cultivation, biology characteristic observation on wild and cultivated Lotus in China. 4 single root shoots were selected from 85 cultivated and uncultivated varieties obtained from 46 counti(?)s or cities of 15 provinces in China. I single-root shoot become a cultivated variety which has high yield, good quality, disease-and-pest resistance and the adaptation to the Jianghan plains and regions along Changjiang River. The new variety is called Nelurabo nucifera cv. WZHCB 2. Its experimental plot yield and field yield is 2679kg. and 2410.3kg, its per mu yield increased 68.8% and 21.7% in contrast with the control. It contains starch 13.5%, total suger 4.090%, reductive suger 1.03% and vitamine E 0.869mg/100mg which is 6 times higher than the control.