Floral morphology resolves the taxonomy of &lt;i&gt;Camellia&lt;/i&gt; L. (Theaceae) Sect. &lt;i&gt;Oleifera&lt;/i&gt; and Sect. &lt;i&gt;Paracamellia&lt;/i&gt;

B Jiang,H F Lu,M Nitin,S S Hong,W Jiang,Y P Zheng

doi:10.3329/bjpt.v19i2.13130

Floral morphology resolves the taxonomy of Camellia L. (Theaceae) Sect. Oleifera and Sect. Paracamellia

B Jiang, H F Lu + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3329/bjpt.v19i2.13130

Copy DOI

Abstract

Numerical taxonomy and cladistic analysis of 19 species of Camellia L. were performed using floral morphology containing continuous and discrete units. The current study mostly supports the classifications of 19 species as proposed in previous works. In addition, it also agrees with combining the following species together: C. oleifera and C. vietnamensis; C. sasanqua and C. hiemalis; C. brevistyla and C. puniceiflora; and C. grijsii and C. shensiensis. Further, we propose that C. maliflora be recognized as a variety of C. sasanqua, and C. phaeoclada is best placed in sect. Paracamellia. Moreover, we conclude that these species can be combined: C. tenii and C. miyagii; and C. confusa and C. fluviatilis. Our study indicates that the numerical taxonomy and cladistic analysis based on morphological characters of floral organ is useful in species classification, and this technique appreciated in sect. Oleifera and sect. Paracamellia can be used for identification and classification of other taxa. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjpt.v19i2.13130 Bangladesh J. Plant Taxon. 19(2): 155-165, 2012 (December)

Highlights

The genus Camellia L. (Theaceae) is endemic to southeastern Asia, and 80% species are native to China (Lu et al, 2008)
The research was based on the investigation of living collections, which were obtained from the International Camellia Species Garden of Jinhua city (ICSG, 29°7 ́N, 119°35 ́S, 40 m in altitude)
The largest similarity coefficient was recorded within C. tenii and C. miyagii (SC = 0.924), which indicates their close relationship

Summary

Introduction

The genus Camellia L. (Theaceae) is endemic to southeastern Asia, and 80% species are native to China (Lu et al, 2008). (Theaceae) is endemic to southeastern Asia, and 80% species are native to China (Lu et al, 2008). Some species of the plant are used to produce green tea, to cultivate as ornamental plants, and the seeds of others are used to produce edible oils (Lu et al, 2012). More than three million hectares of agricultural land is used to grow Camellia to produce in excess of 164 thousand tons of edible cooking oil (Vijayan et al, 2009). The taxonomic relationships between various Camellia species are still unclear. Since Linnaeus (1753) assigned Camellia japonica L. and Thea sinensis L. Estimates vary from about 82 to 119 or 280 species, depending on the taxonomic authority (Chang, 1998; Ming, 2000)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion