Abstract: Pineapple（Ananas comosus var. comosus）has a long vegetative growth period，restricting the efficiency of its new cultivar breeding. Collection and selection of germplasm with a short vegetative growth period can create intermediate materials for new short-vegetative-growth-period cultivars of pineapple. We have collected 23 wild germplasm materials from abroad，which are easy to flower. Since 2008，the introduced germplasms have been cultivated，propagated and character identified. Through comparing and observing the vegetative growth period，a short-vegetative-growth-period mutant‘14-1’was discovered，from the somatic embryogenesis seedlings of Ananas comosus var. nanus. This mutant is extremely easy to flower. Compared with the original variety，the mutant has a vegetative growth period as long as about 6 months（original variety is about 12 months），i.e.，it blooms twice a year. The characterization of mutant‘14-1’can be stably inherited in its cloned plants，so it is a scarce parental material for short-vegetative-growth-period pineapple breeding.

Key words: Ananas comosus var. nanus；short vegetative growth period, character identification, somatic embryogenesis, mutant material