Abstract: Recent phylogenetic studies have revealed that the traditional concept of pteridophytes which includes lycophytes and ferns should be revised and a new classification of the extant monilophytes has just been published by Smith et al. China is very rich in plant diversity, with representatives of most important major groups of the lycophytes and monilophytes. Here we present the recent progress in phylogenetic analyses of lycophytes and monilophytes with a focus on relationships among the Chinese taxa. We conducted a phylogenetic analysis using sequence data of the chloroplast gene rbcL of 184 species (179 genera) representing 62 of a total of 63 families recognized by R. C. Ching. The relationships of all major lineages recovered in the rbcL phylogeny generally agree with those reconstructed in the studies that focused on these clades individually and had more extensive ingroup taxon sampling and/or character sampling. A tentative systematic arrangement focused on the Chinese lycophytes and monilophytes at the family level is presented.

Key words: China, ferns, lycophytes, monilophytes, rbcL gene, systematic rearrangement