Fruit morphological diversity of seven giant ragweeds populations in Liaohe River Reserve

In order to reveal the regularity of the outbreak of the giant ragweeds populations in Liaohe River Reserve, the fruit morphological diversity of seven giant ragweeds populations was studied in 2011. The length-width ratio, the number of thorns, the positive view area and 1 000-grain weight were measured and analyzed with the software SPSS and Squared Euclidean method. The results showed that the length-width ratio and the number of thorns could reflect the morphological diversity of giant ragweeds populations and the fruit shapes were related to geographic positions. It could be concluded that the outbreak and the spread of the giant ragweeds in Liaohe River Reserve were closely related to road transport.