Chinese Araliaceae consist of 20 genera and ca. 175 species. To assess the evolutionary relationships of Araliaceae and their biogeographic diversification in China, the phylogeny of Chinese Araliaceae was constructed by sampling 96 accessions representing 20 genera and 50 species of Chinese Araliaceae and 45 closely related taxa using sequences of the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and six plastid regions (the