Against the backdrop of intensifying global climate change threatening wheat production, deciphering the patterns of trait evolution in wheat varieties across multiple ecological regions and formulating adaptive breeding strategies are of paramount importance for safeguarding food security. This study utilized approval data for 1209 nationally registered wheat varieties from 11 ecologicalregions in China (1990-2023), along with oneyear field trial data for 80 major cultivated cultivars (1947-2020) in the Huang-Huai Wheat Region. Among the 11 ecological regions (80 degrees 59 ' E-127 degrees 19 ' E, 24 degrees 40 ' N-50 degrees 21 ' N), seven were previously classified as irrigated and dryland types. By comparing the trait characteristics and improvement trends among these regions across different latitudes as well as between irrigated and dryland types at similar latitudes, we summarized the effects of latitude and water regimes on wheat breeding. The findings revealed a linear relationship of latitude with both growth period (R2 = 0.99) and water absorption rate (R2 = 0.71), while its relationship with grain protein (R2 = 0.61) and wet gluten content (R2 = 0.70) was best described by a quadratic curve. As latitude increases, the correlation between the growth period and yield of these varieties strengthens. Genetic gain, calculated as the slope of regression, revealed that although yield significantly increased across all ecological regions, the gain rates varied substantially, with an absolute range of 0.05-0.11 t/ha/year and a relative range of 0.83 %-1.68 % per year. Hwever, drought has limited the improvement of yield, protein, and wet gluten content, but has conversely promoted an increase in grains per spike. The rise in thousand-kernel weight (mainly due to grain width) is primarily attributed to an accelerated grain filling rate. Currently, increasing the number of grains per spike, the number of spikes per hectare and hectolitre weight are effective strategies for enhancing wheat field yield in most environments. In the Huang-Huai wheat region, broadening flag leaf width and reducing the number of effective spikes per plant are also effective methods for improving wheat field yield. In contrast, the previous strategy of yield improvement through dwarf breeding has now reached a bottleneck. This study summarizes and identifies the evolutionary patterns of cultivated wheat varieties in China, providing an important reference for wheat cultivation planning and variety breeding both domestically and globally.