Abstract:

 The present paper is a preliminary research of the taxonomy, evolution, geogra-

phical distribution and origin of the species of the Genus Pedicularis L. in Xizang

plateau.  It may be summed up as follows:

     1.  There are 108 species of Pedicularis in Xizang, representing about 33% of the

total species of the genus known in China. Among these species, there are 35 endemics,

about 35.9% of the total species of the genus, this is especially true in Southeastern

Xizang. Where there are 82.7% of total species of Xizang and 88%  of  endemics

reported.

     2.  According to the relationships of the morphology of flower, leaf and evolution,

the genus Pedicularis in Southeastern Xizang seems very active in evolution, because

there is a wide range of flower types varying from the primitive alternate-toothless

and opposite-toothed to the advanced beaked and long-tubed corolla-types.

      3.  There are almost all morphological types of the pollen, especially, the primi-

tive particular tricolpate type is decidedly dominant, and the species with derived

type of bicolpate pollen almost all belong to the beeked, long-tubed type of flowers;

therefore, the evolutionary tendency and correlation between two types is very clear.

     According to above conditions, it may be considered that Southeastern Xizang is

the evolutionary centre of the Genus Pedicularis L.

      4.  Basing upon the floristic-geographical analysis of neighbouring regions, we may

consider that the members of genus Pedicularis in Xizang mainly come from the East,

i.e. the mountains of the plateau frontier in  Western  Sichuan  and  Northwestern

Yunnan.

      Finally, the floral relationships with other regions such as Buthan, Nepal, Xinjiang

and Qinghai, Gansu, etc. are not so close, because the species in common are not very

many and usually widely distributed species.