An Integrated Taxonomic Approach Points towards a Single-Species Hypothesis for Santolina (Asteraceae) in Corsica and Sardinia

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Systematics is the branch of biology that studies the relationships among organisms and their evolution, while taxonomy is the science of classification. In this work, a systematic and taxonomic investigation about three plant species of Santolina, commonly known as lavender-cotton, is presented. Two of these species occur exclusively in Corsica and Sardinia, two of the main islands of the Mediterranean Sea, while a third one is a common ornamental plant, known only as cultivated. By integrating several approaches, we find out that the two putative species from Corsica and Sardinia are actually very similar from many points of view. A two-species hypothesis is no longer supported according to our results, so that these plants should be reclassified as a single species. This study demonstrates the importance of integrating different sources of information to produce reliable classifications (i.e. taxonomic hypotheses). In addition, our study is useful to better understand plant evolution in the context of the Mediterranean Basin, one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots. ABSTRACT: Santolina is a plant genus of dwarf aromatic shrubs that includes about 26 species native to the western Mediterranean Basin. In Corsica and Sardinia, two of the main islands of the Mediterranean, Santolina corsica (tetraploid) and S. insularis (hexaploid) are reported. Along with the cultivated pentaploid S. chamaecyparissus, these species form a group of taxa that is hard to distinguish only by morphology. Molecular (using ITS, trnH-psbA, trnL-trnF, trnQ-rps16, rps15-ycf1, psbM-trnD, and trnS-trnG), cypsela morpho-colorimetric, morphometric, and niche similarity analyses were conducted to investigate the diversity of plants belonging to this species group. Our results confute the current taxonomic hypothesis and suggest considering S. corsica and S. insularis as a single species. Moreover, molecular and morphometric results highlight the strong affinity between S. chamaecyparissus and the Santolina populations endemic to Corsica and Sardinia. Finally, the populations from south-western Sardinia, due to their high differentiation in the studied plastid markers and the different climatic niche with respect to all the other populations, could be considered as an evolutionary significant unit.