Abstract:Twenty-three morphological characters among three species, Cotoneaster multiflorus, C.submultiflorus and C.melanocarpus from genus Cotoneaster Medikus, were compared by statistical analysis. Mean value and coefficient of variability (CV) indicated that the variations at intraspecies level were more or less vary in different characters and species. Results from the one-factor analysis of variance (one-factor ANOVA) showed that there was a significant variation at interspecies level in the 18 characters studied and the variation between C. melanocarpus and the other two species was more marked. The process of Stepwise Discriminant Analysis (SDA) indicated that 6 of the characters (hair on adaxial leaf surface, hair on pedicels, shape of base in midvein, shape of apex in midvein, orientation of arc in up quarter margin, petiole length/leaf length) were the key ones to distinguish 3 species, and besides, 82 materials could be specifically categorized into 3 groups. It is reasonable to consider C.submultiflorus, which is intermediate from C. multiflorus and C. melanocarpus in morpohological characters, as a species.