Advances on taxonomy and breeding of Saxifraga Tourn. ex L.

Abstract

Saxifraga Tourn. ex L. is rich in species diversity with about 440-500 species and broad distribution. The taxonomical issues of this genus have been continuously concerned by the botanists. Saxifraga has important ornamental and medicinal values. Some of European countries have made great efforts on the exploitation and utilization of its ornamental resources. China is one of the diversity centers of Saxifraga, but it has been lagged far behind Europe, USA and even Japan in exploitation and utilization on ornamental value of this genus. The world breeding work in Saxifraga started 150 years ago. By the end of 2022, the 1 692 names of cultivars had been on-line listed by The Saxifrage Society, but only one came from China. In this paper, the germplasm resources of Saxifraga, and progress on its classification and breeding are reviewed, and also the utilization of its ornamental resources is briefly introduced, which will provide an important reference for taxonomical research, breeding and application of this genus in China. The results are as follows: (1) Saxifraga is rich in germplasms, but many scientific issues remain in the evolutionary relationships of its subordinate systems, which require a systematic and in-depth investigation by integrating morphological and molecular biology methods. (2) The cultivars of this genus are mainly raised through cross-breeding and mutant selection, and the majority of cultivars are from the UK, Czech Republic, Germany, and the Netherlands. (3) The breeding of Saxifraga started very late in China, with only few cultivars from one breeding method.

Keywords

• saxifraga
• cultivar
• germplasm resource
• breeding
• research progress