Genetic diversity of Yunjie (Eruca sativa Mill. ) in China was assessed by analyses of RAPD (randomly amplified polymorphic DNA) markers. Twenty native cultivars representing Yunjie-growing ecotypes in China were selected as material in this study. Twelve out of the 64 tested random decamer primers were able to identify 131 stable RAPD bands from these Yunjie cultivars. Of them 105 bands, or 80.15% of the total, were polymorphic. Most Yunjie cultivars from the same ecotype had their characteristic DNA bands.Cluster analysis by unweighted pair group method of arithmetic means (UPGMA) suggested that the 20 Yunjie genotypes could be divided into four groups. The genetic distances among the 20 cultivars varied from 0. 117 8between Shuozhou and Shenchi to 0. 499 4 between Hetian and Xiliang. Hetian alone could be a new type of Yunjie identified in China because it had the greatest genetic distance from all the other tested cultivars. These results indicate that Chinese Yunjie have abundant genetic diversity. Classification of Chinese Yunjie based on the RAPD information was in good agreement with the relationships between these Yunjie cultivars in their geographic origins and their plant morphology.