Morphological characteristics and karyotype analysis of three local varieties of Lilium brownii var. viridulum

We investigated the morphological characteristics and chromosome karyotypes of three local varieties of Lilium brownii var. viridulum (‘Jiangxi’, ‘Pingtou’, and ‘Daye’ lilies) by classical measurements and chromosome routine tableting. Plant morphological analysis indicated that the plant height, flowering diameter, bulb weight and size, scale weight and size in the outer and/or middle layer of bulb, and germination number of scales in ‘Jiangxi’ were significantly larger than those in ‘Daye’ and ‘Pingtou’; furthermore, the leaves of ‘Daye’ were the longest, with a mean value of 14.54 cm. Micromorphological feature analysis revealed that the pollen grains in ‘Jiangxi’ were the largest, with a mean size of 111.76 μm. The leaf epidermis in ‘Pingtou’ showed the longest stomata and the maximum stomata density, with a mean value of 47.6 individual/mm². In addition, the starch grains in ‘Daye’ were the largest, with an average particle size of 47.61 μm, and the starch grain size distribution in ‘Jiangxi’ was more consistent than that in others. Karyotype analysis showed that the chromosome numbers of the three local varieties were diploid, with the formula 2n=2x=24. The karyotype formula of ‘Jiangxi’ was 2n=2x=24=2m(2SAT) + 6sm(2SAT) + 12st(4SAT) + 4t, of ‘Pingtou’ was 2n=2x=24=4m + 8sm + 10st(4SAT) + 2t, and of ‘Daye’ was 2n=2x=24=2m(2SAT) + 6sm+14st(4SAT) + 2t. All three karyotypes belonged to type 3B.