Knautia is a genus of c. 60, mostly European perennial species, with their centre of diversity on the Balkan Peninsula and the Alps, where several polyploids occur. We will concentrate our research on Balkan and Alpine endemic species, e.g., the K. velutina, and K. dalmatica groups.

Coordinators:
P. Schönswetter and B. Frajman.

Selected results
Evolutionary relationships in Knautia are dreadfully complicated; here we present results obtained from diploid members only. Different genetic data sets (amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs), nuclear ribosomal ITS and plastid petN(ycf6)-psbM sequences resolves Knautia as monophyletic and support the separation of the genus into three sections (Knautia, Tricheroides and Trichera). Overall shallow structure in ITS, cpDNA and AFLP data suggests a young age of section Trichera taxa and indicates a rapid radiation and/or recurrent hybridisation. Additionally, AFLP data (see the NeighbourNet presented below; the coloured dots refer to three plastid DNA groups, the numbers are bootstrap support values) suggest that informal infrageneric classification and circumscription of traditional groups are not congruent with actual evolutionary lineages.