XVI International Botanical Congess

The systematics and evolution of the two genera are discussed by use of characters of karyotypes, outer morphology, pollen, embryo and the DNA data and by comparing with the outer group: Petermania and Ripogonum in this paper. In Smilax, X=16 is a primitive basic number and erect woody sp. and herb sp. are of more primitive position. Evolution of karyotypes proceeds in two directions: one toward the woody species, another toward the herbaceous ones. Prototype of the herb Smilax may be an Asian sp. and the Sect. Coprosmanthus including all herb sp. can be recovered. Erect woody sp. possesses the 2X and highly symmetric karyotypes. S. china complex is still in the active differentiation and its 2X original species with erect and short stem found in China is very valuable. It reveals that ancestor of the genus is erect. Heterosmilax is very close to Smilax, especially to Sect. Coilanthus. In S. corbularia, the close relationship between them has been found. Southwest China is a modern distributive and differentiated center of Smilax, maybe the origin center. It is suggested that Smilacaceae is much closer to Liliaceae (s.l.) and far from Dioscoreaceae.---A project supported by NNSFC.