Molecular markers in the identification of some early flowering Curcuma L.(Zingiberaceae) species

In this paper, isozymes have been used for the first time as tools to aid i dentification of some Curcuma L. species that are still taxonomically confu sed. These markers were employed to confirm the taxonomic identification an d to distinguish the taxa analysed; the results were used to describe the r elationship within the early-flowering group. Twenty-one isozymes were init ially tested; out of these, eight isozymes showed reliable polymorphism to distinguish between the taxa analysed. Patterns from isozyme data were anal ysed using cluster analysis and UPGMA to produce a dendrogram depicting the degree of relationship among the species. (C) 1999 Annals of Botany Compan y.