ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the characteristics of inorganic elements in Erodium stephanianum.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>The content of elements such as Li, B, Na, Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, Br, Rb, Sr, Ba, La, Ce and Rb in ten E. stephanianum samples were determined by means of ICP/MS. The results were used for the development of element distribution diagram. The principal component analysis of SPSS and Q-type cluster analysis were applied for the study of characteristic elements in E. stephanianum.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>Five principal components which accounted for over 91% of the total variance were extracted from the original data. The analysis results showed that Al, Ti, V, Fe, La, Ce, Li, Ga and Ba may be the characteristic elements in E. stephanianum; The results of Q-type cluster analysis showed that the samples could be clustered reasonably into two groups, and the elemental distribution characteristics were related to the ecology and origins of E. stephanianum.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The principal component analysis and Q-type cluster analysis could be used in data processing in inorganic elements.</p>