摘要:
Yoo, K.-O. (Department of Botany, The Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 S. Lake Shore Dr., Chicago, IL 60605-2496, U.S.A.; e-mail: yooko@hanmail.net), K. J. Malla (Department of Plant Resources, Royal Botanical Garden, PO. Box No. 3708, Godawari, Lalitpur, Nepal) & J. Wen (Department of Botany, The Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 S. Lake Shore Dr., Chicago, IL 60605-2496, U.S.A.; e-mail: jwen@fmnh.org). Chloroplast DNA variation of Panax (Araliaceae) in Nepal and its taxonomic implications. Brittonia 53: 447-453. 2001. The restriction site and size variation of five PCR amplified fragments of noncoding chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) was examined in material from 13 populations of Panax from Nepal and China. Fourteen restriction endonucleases produced 81 restriction site and length variations from the large single-copy region of cpDNA, 27 of which are polymorphic. The cpDNA dataset suggests two distinct groups of Panax from Nepal (clades I and II). Clade I consists of two populations of P. pseudoginseng subsp. pseudoginseng, and clade II is composed of material referrable to P. pseudoginseng subsp. himalaicus (vars. himalaicus, angustifolius, and bipinnatifidus). The three accessions of P. pseudoginseng subsp. japonicus and P. ginseng studied from China had cpDNA characters that differed from the Himalayan Panax. The highly distinctive cpDNA profile and morphology of P. pseudoginseng subsp. pseudoginseng sensu Hara (1970) from central Nepal support its status as a separate species, which has an extremely restricted distribution.