The biodiversity of apomictic polyploid plants: the Ranunculus auricomus complex

Polyploidy and hybridization are important processes in plant evolution, and often are connected to reproduction via asexually formed seed (apomixis). Adequate species concepts for apomictic plants are still under debate, but have remarkable influence on biodiversity estimations. To overcome the solely descriptive and impracticable classification of ill-founded 'morphotypes', the project is aiming at a classification of apomictic lineages based on evolutionary concepts that are better comparable to sexual plant species. We analyze the Eurasian Ranunculus auricomus complex, a group comprising a handful of sexual species and more than 800 described agamospecies, i.a. by applying 'Restriction site-associated DNA sequencing' (RAD-seq).