Abstract: Based on comprehensive information including biogeography, morphology, anatomy, cytology, reproductive biology, phytochemistry etc., the morden distribution pattern of Podophylloideae along with its original reason and effect on phylogeny has been studied in this paper. The result can be concluted as follow: (1) China is the diversity center and distribution center of Podophylloideae. The modern distribution pattern of Podophylloideae plants is the re- sult of long time isolation and geographical substitute since Tertiary. (2) Among the group, the genus Diphylleia is the most primitive, it evoluted in two ways, one way is switch to autogamy, from Diphylleia to Dysosma and then to Sinopodophyllum, another way is remain allogamy, from Diphylleia cymosa evoluted to Podophyllum peltatum. (3)There is no derect relationship between Podophyllum and Sinopodophyllum, the resemblance of morphology is just the result of parallelism.

Key words: Podophylloideae