• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.315-323
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• 2011

To elucidate the taxonomic status of the genus Megaleranthis Ohwi, a monotype in Korea, its distribution and morphological characteristics were studied and a cluster analysis was performed. The cluster analysis showed that Megaleranthis was separately clustered from Trollius and Calathodes. Megaleranthis is morphologically different from Calathodes Hook.f. et Thomson in having petals, and from Trollius L. in having an involucre instead of a caulescent leaf under the flower and follicles with simple veins. The three genera above are distributed independently within Asia, although they can be found together at the boundaries where their distributions overlap: Trollius and Calathodes occur together between the Sichuan and Yunnan provinces in China, and Megaleranthis and Trollius can both be found on the northern edge of the Korean Peninsula. From both a morphological and a distributional viewpoint, Megaleranthis should be recognized as an independent genus different from both Trollius and Calathodes.