Allopolyploid origin of Cardamine silana (Brassicaceae) from Calabria (southern Italy): karyological, morphological and molecular evidence

Endemic Cardamine silana from Calabria (southern Italy) previously reported to be related to C. raphanifolia was found to be hexaploid. Morphological characters and AFLP data were analysed to evaluate the degree of differentiation of C. silana from closely related taxa and to find parental taxa of this polyploid. Cardamine apennina from the C. pratensis group was examined as one putative parent, as indicated in previous studies of nuclear ITS sequences, along with other related taxa based on both cpDNA and ITS sequences. Both multivariate morphometric analyses of quantitative characters and evaluation of qualitative morphological characters showed: (1) closest position of C. silana to two diploids: C. acris from the Balkan Peninsula and C. apennina from Central Italy; (2) good extent of morphological separation of C. silana from related taxa; and (3) within C. acris subspecies, C. acris ssp. vardousiae from Central Greece as closest to C. silana . Neighbour-joining tree and PCoA ordinations of AFLP data, as well as patterns of AFLP bands sharing, corroborated results of multivariate morphometrics. This evidence supports an allopolyploid origin of C. silana , with C. apennina and C. acris as parental taxa. Its origin may be dated to Pleistocene glacial events, because of the presumably wider geographical distributions of its parental taxa during more humid periods at that time.  © 2005 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society , 2005, 148 , 101–116.