This represents the first study to use Granule-Bound Starch Synthase I (GBSSI) sequence data for phylogenetic analyses within the Asian core Araliaceae clade. The amplified region includes exons 10 and 11 which, together with the intervening intron, total approximately 700 bp in an aligned matrix. The level of infrageneric variation was low relative to that among genera. Analyses based on parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods supported several clades, including Brassaiopsis with Trevesia and Dendropanax with Merrilliodendron. The phylogenetic position of Tetrapanax has been highly controversial. The GBSSI data also suggest a highly isolated position of Tetrapanax within the Asian core Araliaceae. The GBSSI phylogeny is largely congruent with the topologies derived from nuclear ribosomal ITS and chloroplast ndhF data.

Key words: Araliaceae, Asia, DNA sequence data, Granule-Bound Starch Synthase I (GBSSI), Phylogeny