Geographic differentiation in Nigritella nigra s.l. from the Pyrenees, the Jura, the Eastern Alps and the Southern Carpathians

Dark-coloured, apomictic and polyploid members of the Nigritella nigra s.l. complex are distributed over major European mountain regions. Here, we analysed the differentiation between regional populations in molecular markers and morphology. Based on nuclear SSR marker data, populations from the Pyrenees were closely similar to those in the Western Alps and the Jura Mountains, but were differentiated from those in the Eastern Alps. In the Eastern

Alps, populations from the Northern Calcareous Alps were minimally differentiated from populations in the Southern Calcareous Alps. Populations from Scandinavia are related to populations in the Alps, but carry unique genotypes and are triploid as opposed to the tetraploid Alp populations. Plants from the Southern Carpathian region did not share any genotypes with populations from elsewhere. The differentiation in morphology was generally

small, but plants from the Southern Carpathians were still characterized by relatively short and wide floral parts and are here segregated as Nigritella nigra subsp. bucegiana.