The purpose of this study is to review the taxonomic position of Taxus cuspidata var. latifolia endemic to Ulleung Island with related taxa T. cuspidata var. cuspidata, T. caespitosa, and T. cuspidata var. nana based on external morphological characters and DNA barcoding study. T. cuspidata var. latifolia was similar to T. cuspidata var. cuspidata in the arbor, straight trunk, and symmetric arrangement of leaf. But the unique differences between T. cuspidata var. latifolia and T. cuspidata var. cuspidata were leaf size and the exposure of seed from aril. Additionally, sequences of four chloroplast DNA regions including matK, rbcL, trnL intron and trnL-trnF spacer regions were analyzed. Korean Taxus species and their related taxon T. cuspidata var. nana were strongly supported as a monophyletic group in neighbor-joining analysis. Taxus cuspidata var. latifolia showed 100% sequence identity to related taxa. Korean endemic T. caespitosa is also distinguishable from related taxa by prostrate stems and spiral arrangement of leaf. The examinations of external morphology and DNA barcoding study suggest that the taxonomic position of T. cuspidata var. latifolia should be maintained as a variety of T. cuspidata.
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