Analysis On Morphological Diversity And Classification Of Chrysanthemum

Chrysanthemum ( Dendranthema × grandiflorum ( Ramat) Kitam) originated from China and it is one of the most famous and favorable flower- in the world. There are lots of cultivars and variations among this cultivated flower. It is estimated that there are more than 3,000 cultivars in China. The protection and identification of chrysanthemum cultivars are important but difficult.Chrysanthemum in Kaifeng area, Henan Provence, China was investigated. There are 485 cultivars in the area, and some of them are from Japan. In order to check the classification value, 64 morphological characters of 18 selected chrysanthemum cultivars were investigated. R cluster analysis indicates that most of characters are independent. Three of 38 binary or multiple characters and 13 of 27 numerical characters have high intra-cultivar uniformity or have both high intra-cultivar uniformity and extra-diversity. These selected characters can be applied to classification and identification of chrysanthemum. Q analysis was used to determine the relationship among three different groups: Chinese, Japanese, and European. The results indicate that European group is distinctly different from Chinese and Japanese groups. The results are of reference value for further researches on morphological characters and phylogeny of chrysanthemum.