Genus Epimedium consists of approximately 50 species in China, and more than half of them possess medicinal properties. The high similarity of species’ morphological characteristics complicates the identification accuracy, leading to potential risks in herbal efficacy and medical safety. In this study, we tested the applicability of four single loci, namely, rbcL, psbA-trnH, internal transcribed spacer (ITS), and ITS2, and their combinations as DNA barcodes to identify 37 Epimedium species on the basis of the analyses, including the success rates of PCR amplifications and sequencing, specific genetic divergence, distance-based method, and character-based method. Among them, character-based method showed the best applicability for identifying Epimedium species. As for the DNA barcodes, psbA-trnH showed the best performance among the four single loci with nine species being correctly differentiated. Moreover, psbA-trnH + ITS and psbA-trnH + ITS + rbcL exhibited the highest identification ability among all the multilocus combinations, and 17 species, of which 12 are medicinally used, could be efficiently discriminated. The DNA barcode data set developed in our study contributes valuable information to Chinese resources of Epimedium. It provides a new means for discrimination of the species within this medicinally important genus, thus guaranteeing correct and safe usage of Herba Epimedii.

Sarcandra glabra has significant metabolically active bioingredients of pharmaceutical importance. The deficiency of molecular markers for S. glabra is a hindrance in molecular breeding for genetic improvement. In this study, 57.756 million pair‐end reads were generated by transcriptome sequencing in S. glabra (Thunb.) Nakai and its subspecies S. glabra ssp. brachystachys. A total of 141,954 unigenes with 646.63 bp average length were assembled. A total of 25,620 simple sequence repeats, 726,476 single nucleotide polymorphisms, and 42,939 insertions and deletions were identified, and the associated unigenes and differentially expressed genes were characterized. This work enhanced the molecular marker resources and will facilitate molecular breeding and gene mining in S. glabra spp.

Morphological variations, particularly flower colour, could be considered as an evolutionarily and ornamentally significant taxonomic criterion for Epimedium. Our extensive field investigation based on population studies revealed abundant intraspecific variations in flower colour. Five species, (i.e., E.acuminatum Franch., E.leptorrhizum Stearn, E.pauciflorum K.C.Yen, E.mikinorii Stearn, and E.glandulosopilosum H.R.Liang) were found to possess polymorphic flower colour, which is first described and illustrated here. Moreover, all these species were found to be polymorphic in other diagnostic characters, such as the type of rhizome, the number and arrangement of stem-leaves, and/or their indumentum, which have not been adequately described in previous studies. Therefore, their morphological descriptions have been complemented and/or revised. We also provide notes on the morphology and nomenclature for each species. Additionally, a key to the species in China has been provided. The present study could serve as a basis for understanding their taxonomy and helping their utilisation as an ornamental plant.

Rubus chingii Hu is the only species that is used for both edible and medicinal purposes among the 194 species of the genus Rubus in China. It is well known for its sweet and sour fresh fruits that are rich in vitamins and for its dried immature fruits that are used to treat kidney-related ailments. This study aims to evaluate genetic diversity and population structure and build a core germplasm repository of 132 R. chingii accessions from the provinces of Jiangxi and Fujian, using Hyper-seq-derived single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. This is the first genetic study of R. chingii based on SNP molecular markers, and a total of 1,303,850 SNPs and 433,159 insertions/deletions (InDels) were identified. Low values for observed heterozygosity, nucleotide diversity (Pi) and fixation indexes (Fis) indicated low genetic diversity within populations, and an analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed that 37.4% and 62.6% of the variations were found between populations and within samples, respectively. Four main clusters were identified by means of neighbor-joining (NJ) trees, the ADMIXTURE program and principal component analysis (PCA). Based on the genetic diversity, we finally constructed 38 representative core collections, representing 50% of the total core germplasm samples and 95.3% of the genotypes. In summary, the results of our study can provide valuable information on the genetic structure of R. chingii germplasm resources, which is helpful for further explorations of potential high-quality genes and for formulating future breeding and conservation strategies.