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Darwin’s legacy in Platanthera: are there more than two species in the Platanthera bifolia/chlorantha group?

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Abstract

In Central Europe, the genus Platanthera traditionally comprised two species, P. chlorantha Cust. ex Rchb. (Pc) and P. bifolia (L.) Rich. (Pb). They are morphologically characterized by a wide and narrow separation of anthers, respectively. However, a third form with intermediate anther distance has repeatedly been hypothesized but only hesitantly accepted. In addition, intermediate morphology has been also used as the main character of P. × hybrida. However, the status of some purported hybrid populations is challenged by the local lack of parental species, their successful reproduction and non-intermediate traits. Despite this unclear situation, detailed genetic and morphological analyses are lacking. Here, we studied morphology and molecular markers within the P. chlorantha/bifolia group in Central Europe. Three morphological groups emerged representing Pc, Pb and a third form, here informally referred to as non-hybrid intermediates (Pn). The latter is characterized, among other trait differences, by intermediate distance between anthers [(0.7)–1–2.2 mm] and long spurs (28–40 mm). Three gene pools were identified, which largely corresponded to the three morphological groups. The Pn gene pool had several high-frequency private alleles substantiating its genetic independence. Some of the Pn populations were previously interpreted as P. × hybrida suggesting that Pn was overlooked hitherto and mistaken to represent hybrids. The non-perfect fit between morphological and genetic groups highlights the potential for fast morphological evolution. Overall, the finding of three distinct lineages within the bifolia/chlorantha group necessitates a thorough reanalysis of reported taxa and a reevaluation of our understanding of their distribution, ecology and evolution.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. and M. Kleynen, J. Claessens and W. Hahn for their support for our field studies, and H. Baumgartner, K. Kergel, B. Margenburg, K. Heyde, V. Kögler, P. Müller for their help in collecting samples. We also wish to thank B. v. d. Vijver for constructive discussions. We are grateful to the authorities of the district governments Euskirchen, Steinfurt and Coesfeld and to the relevant authorities in Belgium and the Netherlands for sampling permissions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community Ecology (BZF), Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Theodor-Lieser-Str. 4, 06120, Halle, Germany

    Walter Durka & Stefan G. Michalski

  2. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103, Leipzig, Germany

    Walter Durka

  3. Klettenberggürtel 13, 50939, Cologne, Germany

    Angelika Baum & Heinz Baum

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  1. Walter Durka
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Correspondence to Walter Durka.

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Handling editor: Andreas Tribsch.

Electronic supplementary material

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Information on Electronic supplementary material

Online Resource 1 Photos of flowers and pollinaria of non-hybrid intermediates, P. chlorantha and P. bifolia with indication of measured traits.

Online Resource 2 Box plots of vegetative characters for investigated Platanthera taxa.

Online Resource 3 Linear discriminant analysis of P. chlorantha, P. bifolia and non-hybrid intermediates based on flower traits.

Online Resource 4 Details of the STRUCTURE analysis of AFLP data of Platanthera species, including results at K = 2.

Online Resource 5 The morphological dataset.

Online Resource 6 The AFLP dataset.

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Durka, W., Baum, A., Michalski, S.G. et al. Darwin’s legacy in Platanthera: are there more than two species in the Platanthera bifolia/chlorantha group?. Plant Syst Evol 303, 419–431 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-016-1381-8

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