DNA methylation plays a crucial role in regulating plant development and tissue differentiation.In this study,we compared the methylation levels in leaf,root,and stem in Chamaedorea elegans by using the technique of methylation-sensitive amplified fragment length polymorphism AFLP.Over 19％ (42/220) bases were uniformly methylated in these tissues.The percentages of polymorphism resulting from varied methylation in mature leaf (L1),young leaf (L2),baby leaf (L3),stem (S),young root (R1) and lignified root (R2) were 29.5％,29.0％,27.1％,30.7％,63.0％ and 28.3％,respectively.The numbers of polymorphic loci detected in the leaves of three developmental stages were similar,ranging from 20 to 30.In contrast,roots at the two developmental stages differed greatly,with 145 polymorphic loci detected in R1 and 27 in R2.Our results suggest that the methylation level in leaves slightly increases with aging,while that in roots decreases dramatically with aging.