Abstract: In this paper, four species of the genus Cimicifuga L. from China(C. acerina, C. simplex, C. yunnanensis, C. foetida var. foetida and C. foetida var. velutina ) were karyomorphologically investigated. All the taxa studied had the same chromosome number of 2n= 16 except for C. foetida var. foetida, in which a tetraploid cytotype was found to occur in northwestern Yunnan. Their karyotypes are all presented. The chromosomecounts in C. yunnanensis and C. foetida var. velutina are reported here for the first time.

Key words: Cimicifuga, C.foetida, Karyomorphology, Cytogeography