Hybrids Breeding of Seabuckthorn for Multipurpose Use

In order to improve seabuckthorn for both fruit production and for use in soil erosion control, Chinese Seabuckthorn （H.rhamnoides ssp.Sinensis） as male parent was crossed with Russian and Mongolian Seabuckthorn（H.rhamnoides ssp. Mongolica） as female parent. The Russian and Mongolian cultivars have large fruits and few or nearly no thorn, and were originated from the selection made in the Altai region. Cross pollination was started in 1996. Five hybrid individual tree were selected in 2003 , of which 3 individuals（C1,C2,C3） were from the crosses of Chinese（♂） to Russian（♀） cultivars and 2 （C 13,C 16） from crosses of Chinese（♂） to Mongolian（♀） cultivars. Experimental results indicated that the selected 5 hybrids were significantly larger than the female parents in height, ground diameter and crown width ,but close to the male parents.The number of thorns in 2-year-old branches of the hybrids was 2～3, fall between the numbers of thorns in male and female parents ,but a 85%reduction compared to Chinese cultivars. The 100-berry-weight of hybrids was 21.98～29.98 g,significantly smaller than that of the female parents, but 9.6%～48.8% larger than that of the Chinese cultivars. The results showed that the hybrids were intermediate in most characters compared with their parents. It also indicated significant correlation of 100-berry-weight with berry length and length/width ratio and weak correlation with berry width.It is obvious that fruit size is mainly determined by berry length. 1 000-seed-weight was significantly correlated with thickness, length and width of seeds, but not significantly correlated with length/width ratio.