| Coptis chinensis var.brevisepala and C. chinensis which are often used as traditional Chinese medicine for removing internal heat belong to the genus Coptis Salisb from the family Ranunculaceae. The former is a variety of the latter. At present, its resources of the species are decreasing quickly. It is rather difficult to find the wild species now. C.chinensis var.brevisepala was listed as an endangered species of our country in Red Data Book. Although some workers have paid much attention to C. chinensis since 1980', the research of C. chinensis var. brevisepala and relationship to C. chinensis are not reported. The mechanism by which the endangered situations of the two species were invoked natures is still unknown.This paper is mainly dealing with the two species regarding to population biology, growth and reproduction biology, serology and isozyme of the two species. In this study, The threatened factors and the measures for preserving the species were proposed. The results are as follows:1. C.chinensis var.brevisepala is distributed natively in the areas of Anhui, Zhejiang, Guangxi, Fujiang provinces, while C.chinensis occurs in Shanxi, Hubei and Sichuan etc. The natural distribution of C. chinensis is very limited of narrow, fragmentary areas. The population size is very small, so it is difficult to find wild individuals in some areas. Most of the populations are short of adult individuals. Every population isn't dominant in its community. The two species grow in mountain forest or at the edge of mountain valley at the altitude of 600-1600m, with the surroundings beings moist and shady, and the soil yellow-brown acid with the pH of 5.5 ~ 7.0.2. From observation of the plants cultivated in Anhui normal university, the time C. chinensis begin to flower is earlier than that of C. chinensis var.brevisepala and the rate of pollination is very low. There are 8-12carpels in a flower, generally, of which 5-6develop into fruits and in each follicle, there are 5-6 ripe seeds. Some ovules don't develop fully. In some flowers, the pistil is not pollinated, so the pistil didn't develop. The pistil is higher than stamen. Earlier-flowering, cold weather and scarce of insect activities, probably caused the low set-rate of seed, which threatened the growth of the two species.3. C. chinensis var.brevisepala is identical with C. chinensis in morphological and anatomical characters. Both have fibrous root system and the primary structure is not strong. The leaf epidermis of them have cuticle. The stomatas in irregular form were distributed on the abaxial epidermis, and hairs were distributed on the adaxial along vein. The pollen grains of the two species are spheroidal, pantoporate with pore membrae spinulose. The little difference between the two species is that the bract of C.chinensis var.brevisepala has the phenomenon of special change and its sepal and petal are shorter and wider than those of C. chinensis.4. The double-diffusion serology is one of the useful and simple methods in taxonomy. The proteins extracted from the mature leaves of the two species acted as antigen. Put them in electrophoresis, then got 6 bands. The results showed that the moving rate is identical. The values of Rf are 0.013, 0.081, 0.200, 0.034, 0.513, 0.656. C. chinensis has the same protein with C. chinensis var.brevisepala. The result of the agar gel double diffusion produced one band, and the adjoining bands are in coincide. The edges of the two bands are smooth. This showed the precipitation reaction can not distinguish between the two species.5. Isozyme technology was explored to study three types of isozymes. POD produced 5 bands. The former 3 bands stained strongly, while the last two bands stained weakly. The research indicated that the two species and the populations have no difference. EST produced 4 bands, the two of which stained strogly. EST in the two species is consistent too. MDH produce 9 bands, and the 8th, 9th are wide than the others, no much difference in both, so the diversity genetic is low.
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