Quantitative taxonomic analyses of Actinidia (Actinidiaceae) in China based on micromorphological characters of foliar trichomes
中国猕猴桃属植物叶表皮毛微形态特征及数量分类分析

There are various arguments on classification of the genus Actinidia Lindl., a genus with approximately 63 species, 59 of which have been found in China. The paper investigated the char- acteristics of foliar trichomes of 35 taxa from China under optical microscope, including size, celluar structure, distribution and density. According to their micromorphological characteristics, foliar trichomes can be classified into the following six categories: 1) single-cell hairs; 2) uniseriate hairs, including linear, bulbous, twisted, straight-walled, and bent-walled hairs; 3) multiseriate hairs, including twisted, straight-walled and gradually sharpening, straight-walled and suddenly sharpening, bent-walled and gradually sharpening, and suddenly sharpening hairs; 4) multiseriate thick hairs, including pillar hairs, gradually sharpening thick hairs, and suddenly sharpening thick hairs; 5) stellate hairs, including parenchyma-stellate and sclerenchyma-stellate (normal state and special states such as rosulate, peltate-stellate, and overlopping-stellate) hairs; and 6) dichoto- mous hairs. On the basis of the micromorphological characteristics of foliar trichomes in Actinidia, with Clematoclethra lasioclada as an outgroup, both the quantitative cladistic analysis and phenetic analysis were performed using Wagner method and UPGMA clustering method respectively to recon- struct the phylogeny of Actinidia in China. The phylogenetic tree generated by cladistic analysis sug- gests that the sect. Leiocarpae be a monophyletic group, but other three sections, i.e., sect. Mac- ulatae, sect. Strigosae and sect. Stellatae, be non-monophyletic groups. The results obtained from the phenetic analysis reflect relationships among the taxa of Actinidia in China, especially a close relationship between A. chinensis and A. deliciosa, and a relatively remote relationship between A. callosa var. henryi and A. callosa var. discolor. In conclusion, the micromorphological char- acters of foliar trichomes and the methods of quantitative taxonomic analysis are of key importance tostudies on phylogenetic and phenetic relationships of Actinidia.