Abstract: The relationship between Asplenium yunnanense Franch. and Asplenium lushanense C. Chr. has long been in dispute, and here was evaluated based on the sequence analysis of chloroplast rbcL gene, trnL-F and rps4-trnS intergenic spacers. No sequence difference in the studied chloroplast DNA regions was found between Asplenium lushanense and A. yunnanense, but some nucleotide differences in the corresponding DNA fragments were found among other Asplenium species. So, A. yunnanense and A. lushanense cannot be distinguishable in terms of chloroplast DNA sequences, and the very close relationship between them is further affirmed based on the evidence from molecular data.

Key words: Asplenium yunnanense, Asplenium lushanense, chloroplast DNA sequence, relationship