毛茛科唐松草属是一世界广布的大属，约包括150–200种，我国及邻近的喜马拉雅地区为其主要的多样性中心。由于野外工作不充分，一些高度可变的性状被用作鉴别特征，以及对具有潜在分类学价值的微观性状的研究不足，因此该属种及变种的界定常不清楚，地理分布记载极不准确。此外，目前唐松草属的分类系统仅基于少数形态性状建立，未经全面的分子系统学分析验证。本项目拟从文献考证和标本检查出发，结合野外和实验室工作，针对我国及喜马拉雅地区唐松草属各主要性状进行深入研究，确定性状的分类学价值，完成种级水平的分类修订，并选取合适的核和叶绿体DNA片段进行系统发育分析，做出种类系统排列。本项目的开展将为完成泛喜马拉雅地区唐松草属的区域性专著提供保证，为以后开展该属的世界性专著编研和进化生物学及生物地理学等方面的深入研究奠定坚实基础，也将为我国植物资源的合理利用和有效保护提供可靠的基础数据。

Thalictrum L. (Ranunculaceae) is a large, worldwide genus of approximately 150–200 species, with China and the neighboring Himalayan region being a most important center of species diversity of it. Our understanding of the genus from China and the Himalayan region, however, is far from complete. Numerous species and varieties are poorly defined and their geographical documentation is terribly inaccurate owing to insufficient field studies and because highly variable characters have been used as diagnostic features in the literature, and data of some potentially important microcharacters are rather scanty. Moreover, the current infrageneric classification of Thalictrum is totally morphology-based, not tested yet by comprehensive molecular work. This project is intended to address these problems by using an integrative, multidisciplinary approach. We will start with a critical survey of all the relevant literature and herbarium specimens, and then conduct extensive field observations and in-depth investigations of all the macro- and microcharacters. We will carefully re-evaluate the variation pattern of all these characters and determine their taxonomic utility, and make taxonomic decisions in line with the results of re-evaluation of characters. Based on a thorough species-level revision, we will attempt to perform phylogenetic analyses of Thalictrum using appropriate nuclear and chloroplast DNA fragments, with special reference to those taxa from China and the Himalayan region, and apply the results of phylogenetic analyses, together with evidence from other disciplines, to propose a new arrangement of species. Our major objective is to produce a regional monograph of Thalictrum in the Pan-Himalayan region, which should synthesize all the information that is known about the genus from that region. This project will also build a solid foundation for monographing Thalictrum of the world and conducting investigations on its evolutionary biology and biogeography in the future, and will provide reliable basic scientific information for the utilization and protection of the germplasm resources of the genus, in which many species are medicinally and/or horticulturally important.