Objective  A primary core collection of Chinese yam germplasms in Fujian was established for conserving and breeding the natural resources.

  Method  Fifty-five locally cultivated Chinese yams were categorized according to 7 quantitative and 13 descriptive traits. A cluster analysis was conducted on the data using the squared Euclidean distance method to develop a germplasm collection by priority sampling. The representativeness of the Primary Core Collection on Chinese Yams (PCCCY) was statistically evaluated using the agronomic traits as well as ISSR molecular markers.

  Result  PCCCY received 43.6% of the previous collection. It reduced the redundancy of the old version but retained the breeding varieties as well as the germplasms of outstanding characteristics or unique local features. No significant differences were found in the means, variances, coefficients of variation, and Shannon-Wiener index between the PCCCY and the previous collection on various traits. On the quantitative traits, other than stem thickness, the PCCCY preserved 84.9% to 100% of the variation range of the previous collection. Whereas the entire original descriptive traits, except the weakest growth vigor, were kept intact. No significant differences in the number of ISSR molecular marker alleles, effective alleles, Shannon-Wiener index, and Nei’s genetic diversity index were found between the two collections. And 98.6% of the polymorphic loci in the original version were retained. The principal component analysis based on agronomic traits and the principal coordinate analysis based on ISSR molecular markers confirmed a high representativeness on the varieties by the newly established PCCCY.

  Conclusion  The primary core collection established by this study for the Chinese yam germplasms in the province satisfactorily represented the genetic diversity of the natural resource. The PCCCY was deemed to facilitate future efforts in conserving and utilizing the local Chinese yam species.