To better understand variation in Tofieldia coccinea in Japan and Korea, we compared morphological findings with molecular phylogenetic analyses using regions of the plastids trnK, trnL and trnL-F plus the nuclear ITS region of 10 species and 19 samples of Tofieldia, including 10 samples of T. coccinea. Based on morphology, we recognized seven varieties of T. coccinea, var. coccinea, var. kondoi, var. gracilis, var. kiusiana, var. geibiensis, var. akkana and a new variety, var. dibotrya, with a panicle (dibotryum). According to the molecular phylogeny, T. coccinea vars. coccinea, kondoi, gracilis and akkana formed a clade with 57-62% bootstrap support; var. kiusiana and var. dibotrya were excluded from the clade. The topology supports our recognition of T. coccinea vars. kiusiana and dibotrya as distinct from var. gracilis, which is morphologically most similar. The molecular phylogeny also supports the inclusion of T. coccinea var.fauriei within var. kondoi. The name T. yoshiiana var. koreana (comb, nov.) should be used instead of T. yoshiiana var. kanwonensis.