Analysis of the Genista ephedroides group (Fabaceae) based on karyological, molecular and morphological data

Within the genus Genista, the species belonging to the G. ephedroides complex are examined from karyological, molecular and phenetic point of view. All the examined taxa show a chromosome complement with 2n = 48, occasionally with some accessory chromosomes. In addition, the aneuploid number 2n = 44 was found only in G. ovina, while higher counts (2n = 72 and 2n = 96) are reported for G. tyrrhena ssp. pontiana. As concerns the DNA, the restriction fragment analysis of the ribosomal ITS1 (HaeIII, RsaI) and 5.8S-ITS2 (HaeIII) regions was used; the classification and ordination of the taxa allow to distinguish three clusters: the first including the S-Tyrrhenian taxa, the second all the Sardinian and Balearic taxa, and the third grouping G. numidica and G. cilentina. The phenetic analysis was performed by using 40 morphological characters processed by the NTSYSpc package. The relative cladogram distinguishes three main clades: the most isolated including the Sicilian species, the other two separating the Sardinian and Balearic species from the STyrrhenian and Algerian ones.