Molecular Assessment of Remontant (Reblooming) Hydrangea macrophylla Cultivars

Abstract

Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers were used to distinguish five remontant and two cold-hardy Hydrangea macrophylla (Thunb.) Ser. taxa. Eleven primers generated sufficient polymorphisms to separate these seven cultivars into two groups. One group contained ‘Penny Mac’, ‘Dooley’ and ‘Nikko Blue’, while the remaining taxa, ‘David Ramsay’, ‘Endless Summer’, ‘Decatur Blue’ and ‘Oak Hill’ were clustered in the second group. All hydrangea cultivars examined are closely related; the most divergent cultivars exhibited 88% similarity based on RAPD markers.