bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.30.070813; this version posted May 2, 2020. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. 1 Genetic, morphological, and niche variation in the widely hybridizing Rhus integrifolia- 2 Rhus ovata species complex. 3 4 5 Craig F. Barrett1*, Joshua Lambert1, Mathilda V. Santee1, Brandon T. Sinn2, Samuel V. 6 Skibicki1, Heather M. Stephens3, Hana Thixton1 7 8 9 10 1Department of Biology, West Virginia University, 53 Campus Drive, Morgantown, West 11 Virginia USA 26506 12 13 2Department of Biology and Earth Science, Otterbein University, 1 South Grove Street, 14 Westerville, Ohio, USA 43081 15 16 3Division of Resource Economics and Management, West Virginia University, P.O. Box 6108 17 Morgantown, WV 26506-6108 18 19 *Corresponding author. Email:
[email protected]. Phone: (304) 293-7506. ORCiD: 20 0000-0001-8870-3672 21 22 23 24 25 26 1 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.30.070813; this version posted May 2, 2020. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. 27 Abstract 28 29 Hybridization and introgression are common processes among numerous plant species that 30 present both challenges and opportunities for studies of species delimitation, phylogenetics, 31 taxonomy, and adaptation.