Cluster analysis of Chinese Hedychium based on SRAP markers

The traditional taxonomy of Hedychium was based on the bracts arrangement, imbricate or tubular, and this genus was divided into two subgenera. However, that was queried in recent years. The phylogenetic relationship of a total of 22 samples representing 19 species and I variety of Hedychium was investigated using SRAP technique. SRAP analysis produced 152 bands by using the 28 most informative primer pairs, 135 (88.8%) of which were polymorphic. Clustering analysis indicated that: (1) Hedychium from China can be divided into three groups. Plants in group I are short and distributed in limestone. Plants in group II are tall and seldom distributed in limestone. Plants in group III are with only one flower per bract, while plants in other two groups are with two or more flowers per bract. This result supports Wood's subdivision based on internal transcribed spacer sequence. (2) Wu's treatment by reducing H. emeiense Z. Y. Zhu to be a synonym of H. flavescens is supported. (3) H. flavum Roxb. and H. panzhuum Z. Y. Zhu are shown to be the same species, and H. panzhuum is reduced to be a synonym of H. flavum (4) The edaphic conditions are believed to be very important for the adaptation and evolution of Hedychium. In this paper, it is suggested that Hedychium be divided into two groups according to the number of flowers per bract.