The Systematics And Flora Of Tulipa L. From China

In this paper, the parsimony analyses using morphological characters, the noncoding internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions of nuclear rDNA and noncoding trnL-F regions of chloroplast DNA were performed to study the phylogeny of the genus Tulipa L., and the floral characteristics of Tulipa L. from China were analyzed also .The results are as follows:. 1.Systematics ⑴Cladistic analysis based on morphological characters: Using the morphological data of 16 species of Tulipa L. from China, our study supports the monophyly of Tulipa L. .The taxa of Amana and Orithyia that are two disputable sections should belong to Tulipa L. From the cladgram, principal clades have identical view with traditional circumscription. The cladistic analysis based on morphological character is of great value to the division of the sections.⑵Analyses of molecular systematics①According to the analyses using ITS, trnL-F and ITS+trnL-F sequences respectively of 19 species (including 16 species from China and 3 from Turkey),the cladgrams supported the monophyly of Tulipa L. . The three sections, namely Sect. Orithyia, Sect. Eriostemones and Sect. Amana, form a monophyletic groups each other. Both T. julia and T. agensis belonged to Sect Tulipanum previously form a clade with Sect. Leiostemones.②From the cladograms, both Sect. Amana and Sect. Orithyia should belong to Tulipa L. . The two species, namely T. julia and T. agensis, which were attached to Sect. Tulipanum should be placed into Sect. Leiostemones.The four principal clades based on the cladograms are in accord with the traditional circumscription of this genus. According to the above analyses, the molecular systematic method is of great value for the divisions of the sections in this genus. Based on the above results and the analyses of themorphological character and the geographical distributions of this genus ,we put forward a new view: Tulipa L. should be divided into two subgenera, namely subgenus Amana and subgenus Tulipanum.Subgenus Amana consists of the Sect. Amana, which is distributed only in East-Asia region. Subgenus Tulipanum contains Sect. Orithyia, Sect. Eriostemones and Sect. Leiostemones in this article.③From the cladograms,in Sect. Leiostemones, T. iliensis, T. kolpakowskiana, T. schrenkii and T. tianschanica, have inmate relationship. In Sect. Amana, T. erythronioides and T. kuocangshanica form a sistergroup, the two species have inmate relationship. The molecular systematic method is of some value for the interspecific relationship. 2.Flora According to the collection of samples and identification of vochers of Tulipa L. from China, there are 16 species (including five characteristic species) distributed in China.The geographical distibution range of these species were divided into 2 regions: Xinjiang (12 species) and C. E. China (4 species). This two distribution regions have obviously geographical partion. The species distributed in Xinjiang contacted closely with the species of this genus in central Asia, especially in Kazakhstan. Anhui Province and Zhejiang Province seem to be the center of the species diversity of Sect. Amana. The distributions of Tulipa L. from China have obviously horizontal and vertical characteristics. The above results will provide scientific basis not only for establishment of natural taxonomic system of Tulipa L. , but also for domestication and hybridization of this genus in China.