Abstract:Ninety taxa of the genus Ardisia (Primulaceae s.l.) was cladistically analyzed based on 42 morphological characters. One hundred equally most parsimonious trees were generated from parsimonious analysis. Fifty percent majority rule consensus tree of those trees is basically consistent with the tribal classifications of Walker and Chen. However, the Consistency Index, Retention Index and the bootstrap values are all very low except the bootstrap values between species and varieties or species and subspecies. The out-group members of genus Embelia, Myrsine, Rapanea are all clustered into a most basal clade, genus Ardisia is a monophyletic group. The subgenus Tinus, Akosmos, Pimelandra and Acrardisia are in the basal clades of Ardisia, and they are the relatively primitive taxa in Ardisia. The subgenus Crispardisia and Bladhia compose a big clade. They are very close related groups in phylogeny and the evolutionary taxa in Ardisia. In order to provide the basis for taxonomic revision, the phylogenetic relationship within the genus was discussed.
