Chloroplast DNA variation of Panax (Araliaceae) in Nepal and its taxonomicimplications

Yoo, K.-O. (Department of Botany, The Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 S. Lake Shore Dr., Chicago, IL 60605-2496, U.S.A.; e-mail: yooko@hanmail.n et), K. J. Malla (Department of Plant Resources, Royal Botanical Garden, PO . Box No. 3708, Godawari, Lalitpur, Nepal) & J. Wen (Department of Botany, The Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 S. Lake Shore Dr., Chicago, IL 60 605-2496, U.S.A.; e-mail: jwen@fmnh.org). Chloroplast DNA variation of Pana x (Araliaceae) in Nepal and its taxonomic implications. Brittonia 53: 447-4 53. 2001. The restriction site and size variation of five PCR amplified fra gments of noncoding chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) was examined in material from 1 3 populations of Panax from Nepal and China. Fourteen restriction endonucle ases produced 81 restriction site and length variations from the large sing le-copy region of cpDNA, 27 of which are polymorphic. The cpDNA dataset sug gests two distinct groups of Panax from Nepal (clades I and II). Clade I co nsists of two populations of P. pseudoginseng subsp. pseudoginseng, and cla de II is composed of material referrable to P. pseudoginseng subsp. himalai cus (vars. himalaicus, angustifolius, and bipinnatifidus). The three access ions of P. pseudoginseng subsp. japonicus and P. ginseng studied from China had cpDNA characters that differed from the Himalayan Panax. The highly di stinctive cpDNA profile and morphology of P. pseudoginseng subsp. pseudogin seng sensu Hara (1970) from central Nepal support its status as a separate species, which has an extremely restricted distribution.