A Numerical Taxonomy of Korean hex (Aqiu.ifoliaceae)

We performed the numerical analyses of thirty two morphological characters for twenty four populations of eight Korean Ilex L. taxa. Principal component analyses showed that the first three principal components were related to the total covariance by 67.0%, and the proportions of PCl, PC2 and PC3 were 31.5%, 21.1%, and 14.4%, respectively. And the closely related characteristics to the PCl, PC2 and PC3 were some reproductive characters such as the morphology of sepal, petal, anther, pistil and fruits and vegetative characters such as the morphology of petiol and leaf margin, the trichomes on the twigs, the leaf duration. From the two dimensional plottings by the eigenvalues of PCl, PC2 and PC3, six grouped were clustered as Ilex integra, I cornuta, I x wandoensis, I. rotunda, I. macropoda and I. macropoda for. pseudomacropoda, I. crenata and I. crenata var. microphilla. The numerical analysis was useful for the taxonomy of Korean Ilex because it clearly seperated the populations of taxa included in this study. The identification key was provided with the diagnostic characters.