Preslia 88: 77–112, 2016 77 Symphytum tuberosum complex in central Europe: cytogeography, morphology, ecology and taxonomy Symphytum tuberosum ve střední Evropě – cytogeografie, morfologie, ekologie a taxonomie LucieKobrlová1,MichalHroneš1,PetrKoutecký2, Milan Š t e c h2 & Bohumil T r á v n í č e k1 1Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Palacký University, Šlechtitelů 27, CZ-783 71 Olomouc, Czech Republic, e-mail:
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected]; 2Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 1760, CZ-370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic, email:
[email protected],
[email protected] Kobrlová L., Hroneš M., Koutecký P., Štech M. & Trávníček B. (2016): Symphytum tuberosum complex in central Europe: cytogeography, morphology, ecology and taxonomy. – Preslia 88: 77–112. The Symphytum tuberosum complex is a highly polyploid and taxonomically intriguing group. At least eight ploidy levels were recorded previously within this complex. Based on flow cytometric screening of 271 central-European populations, two dominant ploidy levels were revealed: tetraploid (2n = 4x = 32) and widespread dodecaploid (2n = 12x = 96). The tetraploid cytotype is mainly distributed along the southern and south-western margins of the West Carpathians where they abut the Pannonian basin, and found only in Slovakia, the Czech Republic (south-eastern Moravia) and Hungary; our findings represent the first records of this ploidy level for the latter two countries. In contrast, the dodecaploid cytotype occurs throughout the whole area studied. In addition to their geographic distributions, differences between the cytotypes in morphology and habitat requirements were detected using a multivariate morphometric analysis and analysis of a phytosociological database, respectively.