Abstract: In order to discover the molecular markers potentially associated to the phenotypic traits of Cattleya，63 DUS（Distinctness，Uniformity and Stability）characteristics of 160 Cattleya varieties were identified and described. The genetic diversity of these varieties were analyzed with 22 selected core SSR primers. Moreover，the General Linear Model（GLM）and Mixed Linear Model（MLM）of TASSEL2.1 software were used to analyze the correlation of eight main ornamental characteristics and the core SSR primers of different Cattleya varieties. The results presented that 293 alleles were obtained by the 22 pairs of core primers in Cattleya varieties，with a variation range of 3–28. The average PIC value was 0.8531，with 2.3280 average Shannon’s information index. The Cattleya varieties were divided into two main populations based on Nei’s genetic distance cluster analysis. However，GLM model analysis identified 17 markers associated with four different characteristics，whereas 15 markers associated with six characteristics identified by MLM model analysis. Total of 15 loci were identified by both models to be associated with phenotypic characteristics of Cattleya. In addition，two markers SSR42 and SSR9 appeared repeatedly in both models，and may associated with several characteristics such as flower length，flower color，and mid sepal characteristics，reflecting the phenomenon of“one cause multiple effects”.

Key words: Cattleya, DUS characteristic, SSR marker, association