Abstract: The measurement of numerical taxonomy was applied to study the morphological variations of Cerasus subhirtella var. ascendens in different populations between Fujian Wuyi Mountain and Jiangsu Baohua Mountain. The 35 morphological indices analysis showed,the individuals in 2 populations were incorporated into 2 types according to the results of clustering analysis and principal component analysis(PCA),and the morphological variations are naturally showed in the results. The PCA results indicated that the characteristics of length,breadth,the angle of leaf basal in lamina and the characteristics of calyx-tube,corolla dimension and inflorescence pedicel in the flower were the main reasons leading to the morphological variations,and the F-test of single factor variance analysis verified the conclusion. Finally,the cherry in Fujian Wuyi Mountain should be treated as a new variation of Cerasus subhirtella in taxonomy.

Key words: Cerasus subhirtella var. ascendens, populations, morphological variations, numerical analys