Abstract:In order to understand the diversity of sepal traits in different pear germplasm resources and analyze the effect of sepals on fruit appearance, the diversity analysis, correlation analysis and cluster analysis of sepal-related traits of 200 pear germplasm resources were carried out in this study. The results showed that the number of pear germplasm resources with extremely high and low calyx abscission rates was significantly higher than that in other groups, and the number of germplasm resources with different calyx abscission rates showed a U-shaped distribution. For the germplasm resources of sepal abscission, the sepal development process was divided into three stages: before the formation of abscission zone (2-4 days after flowering), during the formation period of abscission zone (5-7 days after flowering), and after the formation of abscission zone (8-10 days after flowering). Among the germplasm resources of persistent calyx and residue calyx, the calyx was mainly exhibited “aggregation” and “upright” posture. In Oriental Pear, calyx-shed fruit generally has no calyx convex, and the calyx convex on the persistent calyx fruit mostly affects the fruit shape. Phenotypic measurement, data analysis and comprehensive evaluation of sepals showed that the thickness and area of sepals varied greatly among different germplasm resources, but had no direct effect on fruit shape. In European Pear, sepals are generally thin and small, and have little effect on fruit shape. The analysis results of sepal persistence on the abnormal fruit showed that 33 varieties of persistent calyx had different degrees of abnormal fruit. The abnormal fruit of persistent calyx fruit mainly included two types: oblique fruit and protruding calyx fruit, while the abnormal fruit in residual calyx fruit was oblique fruit, indicating that the existence of sepal would affect the fruit shape to a certain extent, but it was not the only factor. Correlation analysis showed that the calyx abscission rates were significantly negatively correlated with the calyx convexity, the higher the calyx abscission rates, the less obvious of the calyx convexity. The 200 pear germplasm resources were mainly divided into four categories by cluster analysis, with calyx shedding rate as the main feature (80.7 % - 100.0 %, 16.6 % - 40.2 %, 45.5 % - 78.5 %, 0.00 % - 11.9 %). The results provide an important reference for the utilization of pear germplasm resources and variety breeding.