The Systematic Studies On The Genus Of Lycoris Herb. In China

The plants in Lycoris Herb. are a kind of well-known bulb flowers in the world,which not only has important medical value, but also great ornamental value as well. The genus Lycoris is endemic to Eastern Asia, mostly distributing in China,Japan and Korea. So far lots of works have been done on the morphology, cytology, molecule, physiology and medicine of the Lycoris by former researchers, but there are prodigious disputes remained on the systematic studies of Lycoris.This paper made detailed studies through karyotype analysis, pollen LM and SEM Scanning, and field investigation on the materials which including 13 species of the genus Lycoris distributed in China and Lycoris radiata from different population in Anhui province in cytology,pollen morphology and population biology. It can afford some basic scientific data for the discussion on the systematic ralationships of Lycoris and the further exploitation and ultilization of the Lycoris resources, moreover, this paper has found more differences not only between different species of the genus Lycoris,but also between different population of the species Lycoris radiata. The research result as follows:1.The karyotype of the genus Lycoris has great variation,we find some new karyotypes and new chromosome number by meticulous cytological analysis, especially in Lycoris radiata which karyotypes exist tremendous variation even in different population. With the continual discoveries of new karyotype, we can not use the traditional fission theory or fussion theory to explain the evolutional mechanism of the karyotype in Lycoris, the genuine reason of the great variation is caused by mutation from environmental causes or other reasons needing our further researches.2.This paper roundly and systematicaly reports the pollen morphological data of the 13 species in genus Lycoris from China for the first time. Through comparative analysis on the pollen exine ornamentation of Lycoris we think that the pollen characters of Lycoris is relative steady and basically uniform, the shape of pollen grains are all long sphericity, all species have reticulate ornamentation, but there are large varieties between species in Lycoris on these aspects such as the pollen size , Finely reticulate ornamentation or coarsely reticulate ornamentation,psilate muri or curve muri,having spinulose or not and the spinulose position. These characters are significant in identification of species.3.This paper also has made an investigation on the habitation of the wild plants in Lycoris from Anhui province, the results show: The distribution patterns of the Lycoris population mostly belongs to clumped distribution, plants of the Lycoris have strong adaptabilities to environment, sometimes can form dominance communities in herbage layer under fitting habitation such as warm and humid slopes.4. Based on the exterior morphological characters, cotological, pollen and molecular data (including alloenzyme and RAPD), we think that L.rosea, L.sprengeri and L.radiata have closer relationships, and that L.aurea, L.chinensis, L.anhuiensis, L.longituba, L.squamigera, L.incarnata, L.houdyshelli, L.caldwellii, L.albiflora and L.stramea have closer relationships, thereinto the three yellow flower species such as L.aurea, L.chinensis and L.anhuiensis have a good many sameness in almost every aspects, the author thinks maybe this three species can be regarded as three varieties which belongs to one species. In 1949, Traub and Moldenke put forward an idea which thought Lycoris should be divided into two subgenera (Symmanthus Traub & Moldenke and Lycoris) based largely on flower form and length of stamens. This paper do not agree with Traub and Moldenke's idea. This paper also sustain Cronquist's opinion through pollen morphology which considers the genus Lycoris and Liliaceae have close relationship. Lycoris should be put in Liliaceae.