Tribe Orchideae dominates the orchid flora of the temperate Northern Hemisphere but its representatives in East Asia had been subject to less intensive phylogenetic study than those in Eurasia and North America. Although this situation was improved recently by the molecular phylogenetic study of Jin et al.， comparatively few species were analyzed from the species-rich and taxonomically controversial East Asian Amitostigma alliance. Here， we present a framework nrITS tree of 235 accessions of Orchideae plus an in-depth analysis of 110 representative accessions， encompassing most widely recognized species within the alliance， to elucidate their relationships.
Tribe Orchideae dominates the orchid flora of the temperate Northern Hemisphere but its representatives in East Asia had been subject to less intensive phylogenetic study than those in Eurasia and North America. Although this situation was improved recently by the molecular phylogenetic study of Jin et al.， comparatively few species were analyzed from the species-rich and taxonomically controversial East Asian Amitostigma alliance. Here， we present a framework nrITS tree of 235 accessions of Orchideae plus an in-depth analysis of 110 representative accessions， encompassing most widely recognized species within the alliance， to elucidate their relationships.
