Phylogeny and biogeography of Allium

Allium nanodes of subgenus Anguinum from China

Allium is one of the largest moncotyledonous genera and has been subject to many phylogenetic studies; however, species endemic to China have often been neglected. Based on ITS and chloroplast rps16 intron data, Li et al. find that Allium is monophyletic and consists of three major clades, but some subgenera are not monophyletic. The high genetic distances imply that Allium is of ancient origin. A taxonomic synopsis is proposed that divides Chinese Allium into 13 subgenera and 34 sections.