Abstract: Ten different oligonucleotide primers of arbitrary sequence were used in Capillary and Air Thermocycler to amplify genomic total DNA of Paeonia suffruticosa subsp. spontanea and P. rockii isolated from several local populations in Shanxi, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. Under the strictly standardized amplification condition for all the primers, these primers yielded clear and reproducible bands corresponding to amplified products and separable by agarose gel electrophoresis. Among a total of 71 bands amplified, 16(22. 5%) were polymorphic in a single individual of P. suffruticosa subsp. spontanea, while among a total of 76 bands 21(27.6%)were polymophic in a single individual of P. rockii. On an average,the pairwise marker difference between band profiles of conspecific individuals (different populations) was 7.9 for P. suffruticosa subsp. spontanea and 8.7 for P. rockii respectively. The average marker difference between P. suffruticosa subsp. spontanea and P. rockii was 10.3. Obviously, greater number of plants and primers will be required to detect satisfactorily level of genetic diversity. These preliminary results showed that intraspecific genetic diversity was low for the two endangered species. RAPD as a molecular marker was useful and feasible for detecting the genetic variation within species of wild moutans. And it was also potential for studying evolution and relationships between species.

Key words: P. suffruticosa subsp. spontanea, P. rockii, genetic variation, RAPD