简要回顾了中国桂花(Osmanthus fragrans Lour.)的研究历史,对桂花品种研究的现状和存在的问题进行了评述,介绍了申报桂花品种国际登录工作的意义和目前的工作进展。桂花品种的现代分类始于20世纪80年代,除了传统的形态分类以外,同工酶、分子标记等技术已用于桂花品种亲缘关系的研究中,但目前仍缺乏合理的品种分类原则和分类系统,品种调查、记载和命名比较混乱,因此应加强桂花品种形态学的基础研究。

The history, current status and problems existed in the studies of sweet osmanthus (Osmanthus fragrans Lour. )are reviewed briefly. The significance and progress of the application to International Cultivar Registration Authority ( ICRA)of this species is introduced .The modern cultivar classification of sweet osmanthus has been studied since 1980s, and isozyme technology and molecular marker have also been used to identify relationships of its cultivars. However, no reasonable and accepted taxonomic principles and system are established up to now , and there are still much confusion in cultivar investigation, records and nomenclature. Thus, it urgently needs to reinforce the morphological studies of sweet osmanthus cultivars.