Abstract

clarify cultivation and distribution, and to better understand the morphological differentiation of the Perillaspecies and their weedy collections in Korea, a field survey was conducted and the morphological variation of 44 accessions by examining 21 morphological characters was studied. In Korea, P. frutescensvar. frutescenshave become one of the major oil crops. Namely, P. frutescens var. frutescens is extensively cultivated everywhere in Korean peninsula I visited, whereas, cultivation of var. crispawas not seen at all anywhere, even its weedy type was found as a relict form around farmhouses. In ANOVA (one-way analysis of variance) and PCAs (principal component analysis), var. frutescensand var. crispa showed significant morphological differences for many characters. Particularly, principal component analyses clearly discriminated cultivated var. frutescens from weedy var. frutescensand weedy var. crispa. Seed size, leaf size, length of leaf stalk, plant height, flower color, leaf color, plant fragrance and degree of pubescence were useful characters for discrimination between cultivated var. frutescensand weedy var. crispa, and between cultivated var. frutescens and its weedy type. Although the wild ancestral species of var. frutescensand of var. crispaare still unknown, the weedy types of Perilla may be the key taxon for our understanding of the origin of cultivated var. frutescensand var. crispa.

Keywords

• Perilla frutescens;
• domestication;
• geographic differentiation;
• morphological variation;
• principal component analysis