Separation in flowering time contributes to the maintenance of sympatric cryptic plant lineages.

ABSTRACT: Sympatric cryptic lineages are a challenge for the understanding of species coexistence and lineage diversification as well as for management, conservation, and utilization of plant genetic resources. In higher plants studies providing insights into the mechanisms creating and maintaining sympatric cryptic lineages are rare. Here, using microsatellites and chloroplast sequence data, morphometric analyses, and phenological observations, we ask whether sympatrically coexisting lineages in the common wetland plant Juncus effusus are ecologically differentiated and reproductively isolated. Our results show two genetically highly differentiated, homoploid lineages within J. effusus that are morphologically cryptic and have similar preference for soil moisture content. However, flowering time di

SUBMITTER: Michalski SG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4461419 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature