J Syst Evol ›› 1999, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (3): 220-227.

• Research Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Systematic studies on Paeonia sect. Moutan DC. based on RAPD analysis

ZOU Yu-Ping, CAI Mei-Lin, WANG Zi-Ping   

  • Published:1999-05-10

Abstract: Plants in Paeonia sect. Moutan DC., whose wild types are endemic to China, are deciduous subshrubs. Taxonomic treatments of most species in this section have long been in dispute. To address this question, both intraspecific and interspecific relationships of the species in this section were analyzed using RAPD markers. The dendrogram constructed by UPGMA showed that the accessions of the same species were always grouped together earlier than those of different species. The intraspecific similarity coefficients ranged from 0.60 to 0.90, grouping precisely those species of the same subsection together. Hence, the seven species under question can be well distinguished from each other. The similarity coefficient between P. delavayi and P. ludlowii was 0.60, and they were clustered in a clade. The similarity coefficients between P. jishanensis and the three species P. rockii, P. ostii, P. qiui, and between P. jishanensis and P. decomposita were both 0.48. These five species were clustered in another clade. These two clades corresponded well to Subsect. Delavayanae and Subsect. Vaginatae. Our results support the taxonomic treatment of Sect. Moutan re- cently proposed by Hong (1998,1997).

Key words: RAPD, Paeonia sect. Moutan DC, Systematics