Phylogeography in the Viola rupestris and V. riviniana complexes – a preliminary study

Abstract

Viola rupestris is a paleo-tetraploid species (2n = 20) with a very wide Eurasian distribution from the British Isles, Scandinavia. and the Pyrenees in the west and eastwards almost to the Beringian. ln North America it is replaced by the closely related V. adunca Sm. (2n= 20), sometimes considered a subspecies of V. rupestris, and by V. labradorica Schrank. (2n = 20) in the north-eastern States and Greenland. Viola rupestris belongs mainly in the Boreal zone, although reaching the sub- to low-alpine belts in the mountains and the subarctic zone in Siberia and the extreme north of Scandinavia (North Cape).