Abstract:

Thirty-four characters of 11 species in Machilus in Zhejiang Province were studied by using numerical taxonomy. The clustering results suggested that all 11 species were clustered into 2 sections. The cluster one includes M. thunbergii, M. thunbergii var. linlongshanensis, M. phoenicis and M. litseifolia, and the cluster two includes M. pauhoi, M. leptophylla, M. chekiangensis, M. longipedunculata,M. oreophila, M. velutina and M. grijsii. There was the closest relationship between M. chekiangensis and M. longipedunculata, and M. thunbergii and M. thunbergii var. linlongshanensis illustrated the second closer relationship. In the principal components analysis, the cumulative contribution rate rose fast and that of the first five principal components came up to 83.73%. The hairs on organs were the first principal components. Based on the relationship of the characters, there was the biggest correlation among the hairs on organs of the genus Machilus.

Key words: Machilus, quantitative classification, Zhejiang Province