ÿþ<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML> <HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Expires" CONTENT="Mon, 06 Jan 1990 00:00:01 GMT"> <META content="text/html; charset=windows-1250" http-equiv=Content-Type> <TITLE>Department of Taxonomy of Vascular Plants</TITLE> <STYLE> A:link{TEXT-DECORATION:none} A:active{TEXT-DECORATION:none} A:visited{TEXT-DECORATION:none} A:hover{COLOR:#cc0066;TEXT-DECORATION:none} </STYLE> </head> <body link=#527D49 vlink=#527D49 alink=#527D49 topmargin=5 background=bcg2.gif> <blockquote> <p><font color="#333366" size="2" face="Verdana"> <font color="#709B63" size="4"><a name="cardamineI">Taxonomic revision of the genus <em>Cardamine</em></a> s.l.</font><br> <br> <strong> Period of time:</strong> 2003-2005<br> <strong>Financial support:</strong> Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education of Slovak Republic and the Slovak Academy of Sciences (VEGA, Vedecká grantová agentúra Ministerstva akolstva SR a Slovenskej akadémie vied), Slovak Republic<br> <strong>Principal investigator: </strong> <a href="http://www.ibot.sav.sk/Karol01.html"><font color="#333366"> Karol Marhold</font></a> <br> <strong>Participants: </strong> <a href="http://ibot.sav.sk/Judita/Judita.html"><font color="#333366"> Judita Lihová</font></a>, <a href="http://ibot.sav.sk/Jaro/Jaro.html"><font color="#333366"> Jaromír Ku era</font></a>, <a href="http://ibot.sav.sk/Maros/Maros.html"><font color="#333366"> Marián Perný</font></a><br> </strong> <br> <br> Within the three years of this project, our knowledge on the genus <em>Cardamine</em> has been significantly extended. Several taxonomic problems have been elucidated, and understanding of evolutionary relationships within the genus has been largely improved. <em>Cardamine</em> can be considered as a model genus that enables studies on various aspects of polyploid evolution. Analyses of several taxa using combination of karyological, morphological and molecular methods revealed considerable amount of variation in the genus both at the diploid and polyploid levels. The extent of differentiation among the diploid taxa <em>C. impatiens  C. pectinata</em>, <em>C. maritima  C. rupestris  C. serbica  C. fialae</em> indicates preglacial origin of this variation. On the other hand, infraspecific variation in <em>C. acris</em> is undoubtedly of younger origin. Similarly, the origin or the distribution range of many taxa of the polyploid complexes <em>C. amara, C. raphanifolia</em> and <em>C. pratensis</em> can be dated to the time of Pleistocene migrations connected with the impact of glacial events on the European continent. Comparative studies on European, East Asian and North American populations of several species showed that many previous taxonomic conclusions were incorrect, apparently caused by the absence of comparative plant material from other parts of the distribution range. Different evolutionary history and hence the taxonomical identity of the European and East Asian populations originally classified as <em>C. flexuosa</em> enabled to explain their contrasting ecological affinities.</p> </blockquote> </BODY> </HTML>