Abstract: In order to study the genetic diversity of Gardenia jasminoides and provide the information for the protection and new variety breeding, SRAP was used to assess the polymorphisms, genetic diversity, and cluster analysis of G. jasminoides. The results showed that 87 (88.78%) of the 98 bands were polymorphic by 6 pairs of SRAP primers in 21 G. jasminoides materials from 3 populations. At the species level, the effective number of allele (Ne) was 1.515 2, Nei's genetic diversity (H) and Shannon's information index (I) were 0.308 9 and 0.465 1, respectively. At the population level, the PPB ranged from 53.06% to 77.55%, H and I were 0.212 0~0.258 1 and 0.309 4~0.390 4, respectively. The coefficient of gene differentiation (Gst) for population was 0.235 6, which indicated that the within-population component accounted for 76.44%. The average mean of gene flow was 1.621 8 (Nm>1), which suggested that there was a certain gene flow among populations. The UPGMA clustering results indicated that 21 samples were divided into 4 groups, including Central China and Southwest China populations were clustered into the same clade and the Zhejiang population was divided into two groups. The research showed that the gene diversity of G. jasminoides populations was at a high level, and the genetic differentiation that occurred mainly within populations, which provided a reference for breeding new variety of G. jasminoides.

Key words: Gardenia jasminoides, SRAP, Zhejiang production, genetic diversity