The objective of this study was to understand the conservation of gene resources and provide information for mass selection' of winter bud characters among the selected populations of Kalopanax septemlobus Koidz using analysis of variance(ANOVA) tests. The obtained results are shown below; 1. Ten populations of K. septemlobus were selected for the study of the variation of winter bud characters in Korea. The results of the analysis of variance(ANOVA) tests shows that there were statistically significant differences in all of the winter bud characters among those populations. 2. Correlation analysis shows that width between Height and DBH(Diameter at breast height) characters have negative relationship with all of the characters, as ABL(Apical branch length), ABW(Apical branch width), AWBL(Apical branch winter bud length), AWBW(Apical branch winter bud width), ABT(Apical branch No. of thorns), ABLB(Apical branch No. of lateral bud) and LBL(Lateral branch length), LBW(Lateral branch width), LBT(Lateral branch No. of thorns), LBLB(Lateral branch No. of lateral bud). 3. The result of principal component analysis(PCA) for winter buds showed that the first principal components(PC' s) to the fourth principal component explains about 78% of the total variation. The first principal component(PC) was correlated with AWBW, LWBW, and LBL and the ratio of ABL/ABW and LBL/LBW out of 16 winter bud characters. The second principal component correlated with ABL, ABW, ABLB, LWBL(Lateral branch winter bud length), and LBW and the ratio of AWBL/AWBW. The third principal component correlated with ABL, ABW, LWBL, LBL, and the ratio of LBL/LBW. The fourth principal component correlated with LBL and the ratio of LWBL/LWBW(Lateral branch winter bud width), LBL/LBW. Therefore, these characters were important to analysis of the variation for winter bud characters among selected populations of K. septemlobus in Korea. 4. Cluster analysis using the average linkage method based on 10 selected populations for the 16 winter bud characters of K. septemlobus in Korea showed a clustering into two groups by level of distance 1.1(Fig. 3). As can be seen in Fig. 3, Group I consisted of three areas(Mt. Sori, Mt. Balwang and Mt. Worak) and Group Ⅱ contisted of seven areas(Suwon, Mt. Chuwang, Mt. Kyeryong, Mt. Kaji, Mt. Jiri, Muan, and Mt. Halla). The result of cluster analysis for winter bud characters corresponded well with principal component analysis, as is shown in Fig. 2.

• Sea-Hyun Kim
• Young-sang Ahn
• Hyun-Kwon Jung
• Yong-Seok Jang
• Hyung-Soon Park