Annals of Botany Page 1 of 18 doi:10.1093/aob/mcx021, available online at https://academic.oup.com/aob The Mediterranean: the cradle of Anthoxanthum (Poaceae) diploid diversity Zuzana Chumova1,2,*,†,Eliska Zavesk a1,3,†, Terezie Mandakov a4, Karol Krak2,5and Pavel Travn ıcek2 1Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Benatsk a 2, CZ-128 01 Prague, Czech Republic, 2Institute of Botany, The Czech Academy of Sciences, Zamek 1, CZ-252 43 Pr˚uhonice, Czech Republic, 3Institute of Botany, University of Innsbruck, AT-6020 Innsbruck, Austria, 4Plant Cytogenomics Group, CEITEC – Central European Institute of Technology, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, CZ-625 00 Brno, Czech Republic and 5Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamyck a 129, CZ-165 21 Praha 6 – Suchdol, Czech Republic *For correspondence. E-mail
[email protected] †Equal contribution. Received: 23 September 2016 Returned for revision: 14 November 2016 Editorial decision: 30 January 2017 Accepted: 10 February 2017 Background and Aims Knowledge of diploid phylogeny and ecogeography provide a foundation for understand- ing plant evolutionary history, diversification patterns and taxonomy. The genus Anthoxanthum (vernal grasses, Poaceae) represents a taxonomically intricate polyploid complex with large phenotypic variation and poorly re- solved evolutionary relationships. The aims of the study were to reveal: (1) evolutionary lineages of the diploid taxa and their genetic differentiation; (2) the past distribution of the rediscovered ‘Mediterranean diploid’; and (3) possi- ble migration routes of diploids in the Mediterranean. Methods A combined approach involving sequencing of two plastid regions (trnL-trnF and rpl32-trnL), nrDNA ITS, rDNA FISH analyses, climatic niche characterization and spatio-temporal modelling was used.