XVI International Botanical Congess

Latitudinal trends in wood anatomical characters in three Asiatic species of Cornus s.l. are compared with those for the whole genus. At the species level trends were constant throughout the distribution ranges of the species. The genus-level trends showed that significant latitudinal trends existed both in the Old and New Worlds. The species had narrower ranges of character variation than the genus. For the genus, latitude and three climatic factors all had a significant correlation with wood anatomical characters. The difference in latitudinal trends between the genus and species levels indicates an evolutionary divergence of less variable specific wood structure from a flexible generic one along the past latitudinal gradient.