• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.12-21
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• 2013

To clarify the taxonomic position for Astragalus nakaianus and provide correct scientific name for A. mongholicus cultivar in South Korea, we examined external morphological characters and sequence variations from ITS and five cp non-coding DNA regions. Genetic structure was also analyzed for 61 individuals from three populations using nine microsatellite loci. We found no significant difference between the South Korean cultivar and A. mongholicus var. dahuricus when morphology and ITS sequences were considered. Morphologically, A. nakaianus specimens varied somewhat from A. mongholicus var. mongholicus and var. dahuricus in habit, plant height, and lengths of leaf axis and leaflet. Although sequence data from ITS and cp noncoding DNA regions could not distinguished A. nakaianus from A. mongholicus, microsatellite analysis revealed strong structuring between the cultivar and A. nakaianus. Therefore, we conclude that the South Korean A. mongholicus cultivar should be treated as A. mongholicus var. dahuricus and that A. nakaianus should be merged into A. mongholicus as a variety, i.e., A. mongholicus var. nakaianus.