Morphological, Karyological and Molecular Characteristics of Festuca arietina Klok. – a Neglected Psammophilous Species of the Festuca valesiaca agg. from Eastern Europe

Abstract

Until recently, Festuca arietina was practically an unknown species in the flora of Eastern Europe. Such a situation can be treated as a consequence of insufficient studying of Festuca valesiaca group species in Eastern Europe and misinterpretation of the volume of some taxa. As a result of a complex study of F. arietina populations from the territory of Ukraine (including the material from locus classicus), Belarus and Lithuania, original anatomy, morphology and molecular data were obtained. These data confirmed the taxonomical status of F. arietina as a separate species. Eleven morphological and 12 anatomical characters, ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 cluster of nuclear ribosomal genes, as well as the models of secondary structure of ITS1 and ITS2 transcripts were studied in this approach. It was found for the first time that F. arietina is hexaploid (6x = 42), which is distinguished from all the other narrow-leaved fescues by specific leaf anatomy as well as in ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 sequences. Molecular data indicating possible hybridogenous origin of F. arietina, fall in line with the anatomical-morphological data and explain the tendency toward sclerenchyma strands fusion with formation of a continuous ring in F. arietina, as well as F. arietina ecological confinement to psammophyte biotopes.

Possibilities of Speciation in the Central Sandy Steppe, Woody Steppe Area of the Carpathian Basin through the Example of Festuca Taxa

“…Those species which have continuous sclerenchyma are classified into the eu-ovina aggregate. These taxa can be identified easily based on their characteristic tissue structure and molecular genetic analyses [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27].…”

“…dominii (Krajina) P. Šmarda and [25] clarified the taxonomic status of the species and concluded that it was a subspecies of F. psammophila (Čelak.) Fritsch (which currently occurrs only in pine forests in Northern Europe [17]). Therefore, the accepted name of the species is F. psammophila subsp.…”

Possibilities of speciation following anthropogenous environmental changes in the central sandy area of the Carpathian Basin through the example of Festuca taxa

“…Those taxa of Festuca species in the Carpathian Basin which have bowed base and stem leaves are identified and mentioned by various authors as belonging to the aggregation of Festuca ovina (Adler et al, 1994;Horánszky et al, 1971;Májovszký, 1962;Patzke, 1968;Soó, 1973;Stace et al, 1992;Săvulescu, 1972;Schwarzová, 1967;Armonien et al, 2010). These taxa can be identified easily based on their characteristic tissue structure and molecular genetic analyses (Bednarska et al, 2017;Galli et al, 2001Galli et al, , 2006Šmarda et al, 2007;Šmarda, 2008;Šmarda and Kočí, 2003;Pawlus, 1985). Pawlus (1985) separated a new series within the Festuca genus.…”