<i>Eranthis</i> Salisb. (Ranunculaceae) in South Siberia: Insights into Phylogeography and Taxonomy

<i>Eranthis</i> Salisb. (Ranunculaceae) is a herbaceous plant genus, including few species disjunctively distributed throughout the temperate zone from Southeastern Europe to Eastern Asia. Until recently, only <i>Eranthis sibirica</i> DC. was known in South Siberia, being con...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Marina V. Protopopova, Vasiliy V. Pavlichenko
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-09-01
Series:Diversity
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/14/10/779
Description
Summary:<i>Eranthis</i> Salisb. (Ranunculaceae) is a herbaceous plant genus, including few species disjunctively distributed throughout the temperate zone from Southeastern Europe to Eastern Asia. Until recently, only <i>Eranthis sibirica</i> DC. was known in South Siberia, being considered endemic and tertiary relict. Not long ago, <i>Eranthis tanhoensis</i> Erst was also described in Siberia. We report here a reconstruction of the phylogenetic relationships between the Siberian <i>Eranthis</i> species based on nuclear (ITS) and plastid (<i>trnL</i> + <i>trnL-trnF</i> + <i>trnH-psbA</i>) DNA. The phylogeographic structure of Siberian <i>Eranthis</i> is distinguished by the presence of the two “eastern” and “western” supergroups, which most likely formed as a result of disjunction caused by active mountain uplifts during the late Neogene–early Quaternary and subsequent progressive Pleistocene cooling. The eastern supergroup combines lineage I, containing populations from the eastern Khamar-Daban Ridge, the Eastern Sayan Mountains, and the Tannu-Ola Ridge, and lineage II containing western Khamar-Daban populations. The western supergroup includes only lineage III, containing Western Sayan populations. Our data clearly show that <i>E. tanhoensis</i> is nested in the <i>E. sibirica</i> clade, thereby indicating that its description as a separate species is unjustified, as it compromises the monophyletic status of <i>E. sibirica</i>. Therefore, we suggest here to consider <i>E. tanhoensis</i> as a synonym of <i>E. sibirica</i>.
ISSN:1424-2818