OBJECTIVETo study the principle of interaction among individuals and populations in different Glycyrrhiza uralensis growth density.

METHODThe phenological characteristics, growth status, accumulation and distribution of biomass and glycyrrhizinic acid content of G. uralensis in different growth density were studied.

RESULTDensity had effect on phenological characteristics and growth status of G. uralensis seedling. The fast growing period of plant was advanced with the increase of the density, while the duration of fast growing period was decreased. Individual biomass decreased with the increase of the density, while population biomass increased. Biomass proportion of root, stem and leaf in individual were 65.02%, 19.55% and 15.43% respectively. Their relative standard deviations were 0.57, 0.49 and 0.76 respectively. Glycyrrhizinic acid content was 0.52% -0.59% under low density and 0.29% under high density.

CONCLUSIONThe result showed that the density G. uralensis had a negative correlation with the shooting time of offshoot and underground stem, leaflet number, growth of plant height and diameter at ground, root head diameter, lateral root number, individual root and branch-leaf number, individual biomass and glycyrrhizinic acid content and a positive correlation with the population biomass.