Abstract:In order to rational utilization the germplasm resources, the genetic variation of leaf and growth traits in nine excellent clones, including F1, SR3, SR9, SR14, SR17, SR18, SR25, SR38, SR41, in 5-year-old Acacia melanoxylon forest were studied. The results showed that the leaf morphology, structure and chemical traits exhibited significant differences among the clones, in which the variation coefficient of leaf morphological traits was the highest, and the leaf width (LW) and leaf area (LA) could be used as reliable indexes to intuitively distinguish clones of A. melanoxylon. The height (H) and diameter at breast height (DBH) in clones of SR18, SR17 and SR14 had significant advantage. The correlation analysis showed that LW had significant linear relationship with H and DBH, and did also between LA, specific leaf area (SLA) with DBH. However, the other traits, leaf length (LL), leaf dry matter content (LDMC), contents of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) in leaf, C/N and N/P, had weak correlation with H and DBH. The top four clones (SR17, SR18, SR41, SR14) were selected by comprehensive evaluation of membership function, which could be directly used for production and breeding as excellent germplasms in future.