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Of dwarfs and giants: phylogeny of the Petasites-clade (Asteraceae–Senecioneae) and evolution of miniaturization in arctic–alpine environments

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Abstract

Decreasing plant size with increasing latitude or altitude is a commonly observed pattern. Among the four genera of the Petasites-clade (Asteraceae–Senecioneae), Petasites and Tussilago, widespread throughout the Northern Hemisphere, mostly have large leaves and many capitula, whereas Homogyne and Endocellion from alpine and arctic environments have much smaller leaves and only one or few capitula. We present a comprehensively sampled and dated phylogeny of Petasites, Endocellion, Homogyne and Tussilago based on nuclear ribosomal ITS and plastid ndhF-rpl32 and rpl32-trnL sequences. The four genera form a well-supported monophyletic group. Endocellion was found to be nested in Petasites, and relationships among the other three genera remain unresolved. Dwarfism with small leaves and a reduced number of capitula evolved five times in arctic–alpine species of this group. Although all dwarf species of the Petasites-clade grow in arctic or alpine habitats, not all species from such habitats are dwarfs. In the European Alps, Homogyne alpina, H. discolor and Petasites paradoxus occur in (sub-)alpine habitats, but only the species of Homogyne are dwarfs with small leaves and only one flowering head, whereas P. paradoxus has much larger leaves and numerous capitula. These species differ in ecology: whereas Homogyne is found in nutrient-poor and stable habitats, P. paradoxus grows in nutrient-rich and often disturbed habitats. We conclude that although decreasing plant size with increasing latitude or altitude is an overall trend in the group, factors such as nutrient availability and/or habitat disturbance can counteract this trend.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the curators of the following herbaria for permission to take leaf material for DNA analysis: B, HAST, M, O, PE, PGFA, PMR, VLA and WU. E. Boyko (Vladivostok) is acknowledged for kindly donating herbarium specimens and providing information. We thank D. Franke and M. Geyer (both Mainz) for help with the illustrations and A.J. Moore (Providence) for helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. Two anonymous reviewers are gratefully acknowledged for helpful comments.

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  1. Institut für Spezielle Botanik und Botanischer Garten, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Bentzelweg 9a, 55099, Mainz, Germany

    Simone Steffen, Markus S. Dillenberger & Joachim W. Kadereit

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  1. Simone Steffen
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  2. Markus S. Dillenberger
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Correspondence to Markus S. Dillenberger.

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Handling editor: Marcus Koch.

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Online Resource 1. The alignments of the different markers.

Online Resource 2. Maximum likelihood tree obtained with RAxML of the nuclear ITS data set.

Online Resource 3. Maximum likelihood tree obtained with RAxML of the plastid ndhF-rpl32-trnL data set.

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Steffen, S., Dillenberger, M.S. & Kadereit, J.W. Of dwarfs and giants: phylogeny of the Petasites-clade (Asteraceae–Senecioneae) and evolution of miniaturization in arctic–alpine environments. Plant Syst Evol 302, 545–559 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-016-1282-x

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