Abstract: The shapes of leaves, sizes of median laminal cells and forms of plants were compared among eight Myuroclada maximowiczii populations from provinces Heilongjiang , Neimenggu , Shanxi and Zhejiang . The genetic diversities of different M. maximowiczii populations were also studied , using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) . 104 RAPD bands from 13 primers were analyzed , of which 84 .62% were polymorphic. The Dice genetic distances among eight M. maximowiczii populations varied from 0. 37 to 0. 66 . POPGENE analysis showed that the Nei’s gene diversity was 0. 3326 , Shannon’s Information index was 0. 4877 , GST was 0 .3303 . According to morphological observations, the shapes of leaves and plants are very stable in populations, which indicate the species characters; but the sizes of median laminal cells and leaf tips are different, suggesting that they are deperdent on environment and could be the subspecies characters. The results show that there are obvious diversities among different M. maximowiczii populations, in light of both genetic and morphological characters. The results indicates that M. maximowiczii can adapt to environment .

Key words: Myuroclada maximowiczii