Ranunculus ×prieti (Ranunculaceae): A new hybrid from the Cantabrian Mountains (North of Spain) revealed by morphological and molecular analyses

Abstract

A new nothospecies Ranunculus ×prieti is described following morphological and molecular characterization. Hypervariable Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) markers, flow cytometry (FCM) analysis and pollen viability were conducted. The profiles of hybrid samples were compared to their presumed parental taxa R. amplexicaulis and R. gramineus. Morphological study revealed that all hybrid individuals were morphologically intermediate between their parents, showing ovate-lanceolate basal leaves and amplexicaul cauline leaves as in R. amplexicaulis and yellow corollas as in R. gramineus. Principal coordinates analysis of the AFLP data set showed that hybrids are closer to R. gramineus than to R. amplexicaulis, whereas the results obtained by flow cytometry indicate otherwise. Pollen fertility estimation of R. ×prieti ranged from 68.83 to 95.81%, showing that hybrid samples are well established and fertile.

Keywords:

• AFLP
• flow cytometry
• hybrid
• morphology
• pollen fertility
• Ranunculus amplexicaulis
• R. gramineus
• taxonomy

Acknowledgements

The author thanks María Ángeles Fernández Casado and María del Carmen Fernández-Carvajal for pollen analyses and Juan Homet for helping with the sampling. The author also thanks Candela Cuesta and José Antonio Fernández Prieto for critical reading and valuable comments and Marie-Stéphanie Samain for language revision of the manuscript.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

E. Cires

Present address: Department of Biology, Research Group Spermatophytes, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium