Abstract: Although little morphological differentiation is detected between intercontinental disjunct populations of Phryma, this monotypic genus shows distinct molecular divergence corresponding to its distribution in eastern Asia and eastern North America. This study further employs amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analyses using two selective primer pairs to quantify genetic diversity and evaluate the morphological stasis . Most of the molecular variance is accounted for by variance among populations between regions .Cluster and PCA analyses revealed that Phryma constitutes twomajor groups in line with their geographic distribution, with one genetically distinct group from the eastern Asia and the other with accessions from eastern North America. The results robustly supported the distinct genetic divergence and morphological stasis in Phryma.

Key words: AFLP