Prancˇl & al. • Evolutionary history of Callitriche TAXON 69 (5) • October 2020: 1016–1041 SYSTEMATICS AND PHYLOGENY Intricate evolutionary history of Callitriche (Plantaginaceae) taxa elucidated by a combination of DNA sequencing and genome size Jan Prancˇl,1,2 Judith Fehrer,1 Petra Caklová,1 Veronika Bambasová,1 Magdalena Lucˇanová1,3 & Zdeneˇk Kaplan1,2 1 Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Botany, Zámek 1, 252 43 Pru˚honice, Czech Republic 2 Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Benátská 2, 128 01 Prague, Czech Republic 3 Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 1760, 370 05 České Budeˇjovice, Czech Republic Address for correspondence: Jan Prancˇl,
[email protected] DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/tax.12315 Abstract The widespread aquatic plant genus Callitriche is taxonomically very challenging, but noteworthy in many evolutionary aspects including a high overall diversity, extensive phenotypic plasticity, remarkable reproductive systems and a large variation in ploidy levels and chromosome numbers. We conducted a multi-level systematic study on 346 individuals of 25 taxa from 21 mostly European countries. Flow cytometric estimation of genome size, chromosome counting and direct sequencing of ITS and trnT-trnL DNA markers combined with RFLPs of the ITS region were applied in order to unravel the phylogenetic relationships among Callitriche taxa and to clarify the origin of polyploid species and hybrids. Additionally, ITS sequences from a recent worldwide phylogenetic study of the genus were included for comparison. We demonstrate that most of the traditionally recognized European Callitriche taxa are well defined by a combination of genome size and molecular markers.