Diversification of the European bladdernuts (Staphylea, Staphyleaceae) in context of the whole genus and the rich fossil record

Abstract Staphyleaceae is a small family of shrubs and trees with its name-giving genus Staphylea having a highly disjunct distribution. Staphylea has a rich fossil record and was an important element in warm temperate Tertiary forests and is therefore regarded as a Tertiary relict. Based on DNA-sequence analyses of the nuclear marker ITS 1–2 and the chloroplast marker trnL-F as well as AFLP fingerprinting (Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphisms) we gained more insights into the evolution and diversification of the two ‶European″ bladdernut species, the widespread diploid Staphylea pinnata and the tetraploid Staphylea colchica of the Caucasus. As the Caucasus is located west of the Ural Mountains, we consider both species as European. Staphylea pinnata seems to be involved in the hybridization of the likely allo-poly-ploidization of Staphylea colchica together with an unknown, supposedly now extinct species. Ancient repeat types of ITS 1–2 in Staphylea pinnata of Central Europe and Georgia suggested possible glacial refugia in Georgia, sequence similarity (especially a characteristic gap) in ITS 1–2 sequences of Ukrainian and Central European samples indicate refugia also in Ukraine. Staphylea emodi, the only Staphylea species of Central Asia (Tibetan Plateau), was in our research more closely related to the European species than to American representatives.