The Studies Of Family Ranunculaceae In Western Tianshan Mountain In China

In the past decades, few of studies concentrate on the systematics of familyRanunculaceae in Xinjiang provice, especially in the Western Tianshan Mountains. Inthis study, we firstly analyzed the morphological characters of family Ranunculaceae(14species from9genera of6tribes of3subfamilies), including roots, stems, leaves,flowers and fruits. Our results reveal that the morphological characters of roots,flowers and fruits exhibited extensively variations.According to the systematic results of morphological data, the intergenericrelationships of Ranunculaceae are as following: the genus Aquilegia shows a closerphylogenetic relationship with Isopyrum. Similaly, the Ranunculus exhibited a closerphylogenetic relationship with Ceratocepphalus. In addition, we also performed themolecular systematic analysis of family Ranunculaceae (14species,9genera,6tribes,3subfamilies) using the sequences of internal transcribed spacer (ITS). Our resultsalso reveal that the genus Clematis shows a closer phylogenetic relationship withAnemone and Ranunculus exhibits a closer phylogenetic relationship withCeratopcephalus， but further away from Aconitum.Compared the datum ofmorphological with molecular systematic, we concluded that Trollius displays a closerphylogenetic relationship with Aquilegia, but Clematis is further away fromRanunculus.Based on the phylogenetic analyses, we also investigate the flora of westernTianshan Mountains. According to the results, the family Ranunculaceae in westernTianshan Mountains includes12genera and32species. It takes up54.55%and30.77%of the total Ranunculaceae genera of Xinjiang province and China,respectively. These results indicate that the western Tianshan Mountains contains highspecies richness. In conclusion, our study not only reveals the systematic relationshipswithin family Ranunculaceae, but also provides some fundamental information forfuture studies of conservation biology.