A CLADISTIC STUDY ON SOME DENDRANTHEMA SPP. IN CHINA

The phylogenetic relationships among 12 species of Dendranthema in China are dealt with by using Wagner parsimony.The results indicate that cladistic analysis is not only as effective as Qcluster analysis in grouping taxa,but also can reveal the phylogenetic relationships of the taxa in question.Dendrathema vestitum and D.×grandiflorum are the species of a high evolutionary degree and some of the hybrids are evolved in cultivated group.Also, we find a parallel evolutionary phenomenon of characters between different cultivars.Finally, some questions about origin of Chinese cultivated Chrysanthemum are also discussed.