• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.267-274
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• 2012

To understand morphological and genetic differentiation between Euphorbia esula and E. maackii we examined 12 morphological characters and 11 isozyme loci from 14 populations of two species. Species of E. esula complex (A = 1.63, P = 44.83, $H_e$ = 0.198) in Korea maintain nearly as high as the genetic diversity reported in East Asian E. jolkinii and E. fauriei while lower than those of E. ebracteolata and E. pekinensis in Korea. Although the ranges of most morphological character variation of the two species overlap, E. esula and E. maackii were well recognized by the combination of the morphological traits, and the result of UPGMA phenogram supports the two distinct species inhibited in Korea. However, isozyme data do not support the recognition of E. esula and E. maackii. The discordance between morphological and allozyme data should be explained by the recent divergence or gene flow via introgressive hybridization between two species.