SURVEY OF DIOSPYROS SPP. FOR CONSIDERING THE ORIGIN OF DIOSPYROS KAKI AND ITS EVALUTIONAL PROCESS FOR CULTIVATION

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There is a report to show that Diospyros kaki is closely related to D. lotus, D. oleifera, and D. glandulosa. In addition to these three species, we started to find some Diospyros spp. having close relationships to D. kaki in the area of South China and Northern mountain regions of Thailand and Vietnam where D. kaki (cultivated kaki) thought to be originated. Due to our exploration, we found several species of Diospyros, among which we clarified that some species have morphologically very close features to D. kaki. “Ye-mao-shi” from China and “Hong Coc” from Vietnam are two species in our interests. Especially, “Ye-mao-shi” is the most interesting species because of its very close morphology to D. kaki. When the distribution of “Ye-mao-shi” was investigated by specimen survey in botanical gardens in China, it clearly showed that this species aredistributed only in Yunnan province. We also showed a possibility that “Ye-mao-shi” is diploid, as the same as D. lotus, D. oleifera, and D. glandulosa. We need further investigations using molecular analyses to clarify the phylogenetic position of this species to D. kaki and to consider the involvement of this species for appearance of cultivated kaki.