Abstract: Genetic diversity and clonal structure of eight populations of Hedysarum laeve Maxim. in sandland were studied using starch gel electrophoresis. Allozyme data of 15 loci of 10 enzymes indicated relatively high levels of genetic variability in this species with a proportion of polymorphic loci P = 37.0 and an average number of alleles per locus of A = 1.48 and an average expected heterozygosity of He = 0. 101. It exhibited a low degree of population differentiation among the eight populations with GST value of 0.067. There was no significant difference of the genetic diversity between the populations in the fixed dunes and in the semi-fixed dunes. The clonal diversity was very high (D = 0.915 6) in H. laeve populations according to the analysis based on 7 polymorphic loci. The sizes of different clones, however, varied greatly. In addition, there was great clonal differentiation among populations with only 3.2 % of the widespread genotyes. The analysis of clonal structure demonstrated that the spatial distribution pattern of H. laeve clones was one of the guerilla architectures.

Key words: Hedysarum laeve, Genetic diversity, Clonal diversity, Clonal structure, Clonal plant