Fig. 1 A. roxburghii at different growth stages 3-month（S3）, 6-month（S6）and 10-month（S10）from left to right. The same below

Fig. 2 Principal component analysis plot for samples The same color in the figure is a group, and the numerical labels refer to different replicates of the same group, e.g., S3-3 is the third replicate of the 3-month group, the same below

Fig. 3 Heat map of sample correlation The blue, green, and pink colors on the chart represent 3-, 6-, and 10-month, respectively; the darker the blue color in the box, the deeper the correlation

Fig. 4 Clustering heat map of metabolites of differential carotenoid substances in the leaves of A. roxburghii at different growth stages

Fig. 5 Proportion of changes in the metabolites of different carotenoids in the leaves of A. roxburghii at different growth stages Light yellow bars indicate the comparison between 3-month and 6-month, pink bars indicate the comparison between 3-month and 10-month, and brown bars indicate the comparison between 6-month and 10-month. The longer the bar, the greater the change, and the numbers in the box indicate multiples of the change

Fig. 6 Heat map of carotenoid synthesis-related differential gene clustering In the heat map, orange indicates high expression level and purple indicates low expression level. The darker the color, the deeper the degree

Fig. 7 Co-analysis map of carotenoid transcript metabolism Solid and dashed boxes indicate major pathways and non-major, respectively; orange English and green Chinese are differential genes and differential metabolites, where red-blue indicates differential metabolites expressed from high to low in the heat map, and orange-purple indicates differential transcribed genes expressed from high to low in the heat map

Fig. 8 Regulation correlation between transcription factors and enzyme genes in carotenoid transcription and metabolism Green graph indicates enzyme genes, purple graph indicates transcription factors, solid and dashed lines indicate positive and negative correlations, respectively; the thicker the line, the stronger the correlation

Fig. 9 RT-qPCR analysis of different enzymes genes in A. roxburghii leaves at different growth stages Light yellow bars and S3 indicate 3 months of age, pink bars and S6 indicate 6 months of age, and brown bars and S10 indicate 10 months of age. Different letters indicate significant differences at the 0.05 level（P < 0.05）