Dove tree, Davidia involucrata Baill . (Cornaceae), which is endemic in western China, is not only one of the best known relict species of the Tertiary, but also a famous ornamental plant with dove-shaped fl owers (Fu and Chin, 1992). Fossils from the Paleocene of North America indicate that the genus Davidia Baill. was more widespread in the past ( Manchester, 2003 ). Davidia involucrata is only one relict species in the genus Davidia ; other species within the genus went extinct during the ice ages of the Quaternary. This species survived only in the subtropical mountains of southwestern China because of the topographical complexity and weak impact of the glaciers (Wu et al.,2004). After the ice ages, D. involucrata populations spread slowly in mountains in southwestern China. Today, D. involucrate is distributed in more than 40 counties in Gansu, Shanxi, Hubei, Hunan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, and Chongqing provinces (Wu et al., 2004). Additionally, as an ornamental plant, D. involucrata has been introduced from China to many countries since 1904. In the 20th century, the distribution and population size of D. involucrata decreased sharply, owing to human activities that destroyed natural forests. The species has been placed in the highest class of protected plant species in China (Fu and Chin, 1992) and listed as Vulnerable (VU) in the IUCN Red List (http://www.iucnredlist.org/). An appropriate conservation program is urgently needed to prevent further loss of D. involucrata . Although genetic characterization of germplasm resources is essential for the effi cient conservation and utilization of the species, little is known about the genetic diversity and population structure of either wild or cultivated D. involucrata. Because of their codominant and hypervariable nature, microsatellite markers have been proven to be highly efficient molecular tools. Here, we describe the characterization of 15 polymorphic and two monomorphic microsatellite loci in the genome of D. involucrata for population and conservation genetics studies.