GENETIC DIVERSITY AND POPULATION STRUCTURE OF THE MOUNTAIN SPECIES TELEKIA SPECIOSA (ASTERACEAE) IN THE SE CARPATHIANS

Telekia speciosa (Schreb.) Baumg. was selected to investigate the phylogeography of tall-herb species, an ecological group in which the Quaternary history has been rarely studied. This species is a characteristic component of mountain forest communities in the Romanian Carpathian Mountains. The analysis employing Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) fingerprinting has revealed a notable absence of a well-defined phylogeographical structure among the populations assessed. This finding implies that the various regions of the current distribution range of Telekia speciosa in the SE Carpathians have not undergone extended periods of isolation. Such a pattern suggests that this mountain tall-herb species might have experienced the possibility of long-term persistence along a wide altitudinal gradient in isolated mountain ranges, also encompassing the lowlands between them in glacial periods. Beside the unique vegetation history experienced during the most recent glaciation in the SE Carpathians, the observed weak phylogeographical structure of Telekia speciosa can be reasonably attributed to its inherent biological traits, particularly its proficiency in long-distance dispersal. Additionally, the species' ecological adaptations, which facilitated its survival in riparian zones of relatively low, forested mountain ranges, might contributed further to maintaining genetic connectivity among populations, thereby mitigating substantial genetic differentiation across its distribution. The study concludes that the genetic variation observed in T. speciosa is relatively evenly distributed across the species' distribution area.