Abstract:The study aimed to investigate the genetic diversity of fruit phenotypic traits in wild Camellia oleifera from various seed sources, as well as to provide a theoretical basis for selecting superior C. oleifera cultivars and improving genetic germplasm resources. Eight fruit phenotypic traits of C. oleifera from diverse seed sources were statistically and analytically analyzed using various statistical methods, including analysis of variance, nested analysis of variance, correlation analysis, principal component analysis, and cluster analysis. This analysis involved 218 well-developed C. oleifera specimens from 16 provenances across nine provinces, including Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Anhui, Sichuan, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, and Guizhou. The results indicated a high variation in phenotypic traits among wild C. oleifera fruits from different provenances. The mean coefficient of variation for the 8 fruit phenotypic traits across 19 provenances ranged from 12.03% to 35.08%. The mean coefficient of variation between provenances (42.83%) exceeded that within provenances (23.99%), with a mean coefficient of phenotypic differentiation of 88.63%. The correlation analysis revealed significant positive correlations among fresh fruit weight, fruit height, fruit diameter, skin thickness, fresh seed weight, and seed number per fruit, as well as significant negative correlations between skin thickness and seed yield. The principal component analysis demonstrated a cumulative contribution rate of 90.773% for the first three principal components, suggesting that these components largely encapsulated the phenotypic characteristics of wild C. oleifera fruits. Specifically, the first principal component mainly reflected fruit size, the second mainly reflected fruit seed rate, and the third mainly reflected fruit shape. The cluster analysis revealed that the 16 seed sources were initially categorized into A and B classes at Euclidean distance 10, and then further subdivided into distinct subclasses at Euclidean distance 5. The results indicated abundant variation in phenotypic traits among wild C. oleifera fruits, suggesting the selection of diverse seed sources as breeding materials based on breeding objectives.