Objective A comprehensive evaluation was conducted on Polygonatum cyrtonema germplasms to identify superior accessions for breeding.

Method Sixteen agronomic traits, along with polysaccharide content, of P. cyrtonema collected at Taozhou Base in Guangze, Nanping City, Fujian Province were evaluated to determine breeding potentials of the germplasms using correlation, principal component, and cluster analyses.

Result The coefficients of variation of all agronomic indexes, except branch count, were greater than 20%. Advantageously, the plant height, leaf length, and aboveground fresh weight of 13 germplasms differentiated significantly that eased cultivar selection. On the other hand, significant correlations and information overlap among the traits burred the borderlines that necessitated principal component analysis for clearcut comparison. By using top 6 principal components on the indexes with eigenvalues greater than 1 and 88.23% on cumulative variance contribution rate, it was found that most information on the main agronomic characteristics of the germplasms were covered. And by applying the cluster analysis, the collected P. cyrtonema germplasms could be distinctively categorized into two classes. By integrating principal component analysis and cluster analysis, a comprehensive evaluation on P. cyrtonema germplasm resources selected the long-leaf accession CY-5 as a recommended elite germplasm for breeding superior cultivars.

Conclusion  A superior germplasm of P. cyrtonema, the long-leaf P. cyrtonema CY-5, was identified, which layed a theoretical foundation for breeding improved varieties of P. cyrtonema.