Abstract:

Allium L. is an important perennial herb,which is one of the largest genera in monocotyledoneae Liliaceae,and widely distribute all over the world. To understand the Allium clearly,the systematic classification,interspecific differentiation,and genetic relationship are very important. However,it is very difficult to clarify for the Allium plant due to the large group. This article summarized the research progress of Allium including the discovery,plant system location,new taxonomic category within the genus and systematic taxonomy. The systematic position of Allium plants was also constantly changing because of the different classification standards. There were three main points of view on the evolution of its historical location. It was believed that the Allium belongs to the Liliaceae family,or Amaryllidaceae family,or Alliaceae family. Although there were different views on the systematic location of Allium plants,most scholars suggested the Allium as the genus and the subgenus,the group and other classification methods should be used as subunits. Nowadays,the research progress on the systematic taxonomy of Allium mainly focuses on phenotypic traits,pollen micromorphology,seed coat micromorphology,cytology and molecular systematics. At the molecular level,nuclear genome sequences and chloroplast genome sequences have been used in the taxonomic study of Allium plants,but mitochondrial genome sequences have not been reported. In the future,research on the classification of Allium plants,the combination of multiple methods will surely become a trend,which can identify and classify Allium species faster and more accurately.

Key words: Allium, morphological classification, molecular classification, systematic classification