Abstracts, XIV OPTIMA Meeting, Palermo (Italy) , 9-15

XIV OPTIMA Meeting, Palermo (Italy), 9-15 September 2013
Facts and fancies about transadriatic connections in plants - phylogenetic evidence
FRAJMAN B., SCHÖNSWETTER P.
Institute of Botany, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria. E-mail: bozo.frajman@uibk.ac.at;
peter.schoenswetter@uibk.ac.at
Contemporary distributions of plants are result of different factors, such as historic geologic activities
and climatic fluctuations, biology of the species (different dispersal modes) as well as recent influences,
e.g. through human activities. In general, geographically closer areas share a more similar flora
than more distant ones and larger water bodies (e.g. seas, oceans) often present barriers for dispersal.
Such a barrier is also the Adriatic Sea, but it has been long acknowledged that several species managed
to bridge this barrier, resulting in amphi-Adriatic distribution patterns. Traditionally it is assumed that
many of these plants have bridged the Adriatic in the Tertiary (Miocene-Pliocene), when southern Italy
was connected with the Balkans by a chain of islands across the Otranto Strait. The other, mostly
Illyrian species, have more likely spread along the northern Adriatic coast. Some examples of the
species (groups) with amphi-Adriatic distribution are the Campanula garganica complex, Cardamine
glauca, Drypis spinosa, Euphorbia barrelieri, Gentianella crispata and Potentilla apennina. Some of
them were recently studied phylogenetically and hypotheses of close relationships between populations/species
from both areas were either confirmed (as in the case of C. garganica) or rejected (as in
the case of Androsace mathildae – A. komovensis). Other phylogenetic studies indicated some additional
connections, as in the case of Knautia visianii and K. lucana. The timing of the diversification
events between the Italian and Balkan Peninsula is difficult to assess, but some studies indicate that the
dispersal to Italy has likely taken place at different time horizons and is thus not limited to the Tertiary.
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