PREMISE OF THE STUDY: Primers were developed for a portion of the ycf1 plastid gene in magnoliid taxa to investigate the utility of ycf1 in phylogenetic analyses. METHODS AND RESULTS: Twenty-six species across six families within the magnoliid group (Canellales, Piperales, Laurales, and Magnoliales) were sampled to examine the ability to amplify ycf1. Additionally, 29 accessions of Asimina and Deeringothamnus (Annonaceae) were sequenced to assess levels of variation in ycf1 compared to matK and trnL-F. CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate that ycf1 is easily amplifi ed and sequenced. In Annonaceae, ycf1 provides more informative phylogenetic characters than commonly used markers such as matK and trnL-F .