Variation of the selected markers Because the aim of this study was to consider the taxonomic status of C. acerifolia var. elobata, we did not assess the PCR and sequencing success rates of all of the tested markers. A total of 920 sequences were obtained from 115 sampled Clematis individuals from 11 taxa. The variability of the eight selected DNA markers is summarized in Table 3. ITS showed the highest interspecific sequence divergence (4.68%), followed by ETS (4.48%), atpB-rbcL (3.00%), and rps16 (2.55%), whereas accD demonstrated the lowest divergence among the tested species (0.17%). The highest intraspecific distance was recorded for ITS (0.36%), whereas accD showed no divergence within the tested species. ITS had the highest number of informative sites, whereas ETS had the highest percentage of informative sites (14.11%). Among the tested markers, the most highly conserved marker was accD, which had the fewest variable sites and no indels.