Format: ORAL

Ozan Sentrk1, Zeki Ayta2, Gregory J. Kenicer1

1 Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK 2 Faculty of Science, Gazi University, Ankara, Türkiye

The genus Ebenus L. (Leguminosae, Papilionoideae, Tribe Hedysareae) consists of 21 perennial shrubs and subshrubs with high levels of country and regional endemism. It is known from the Arabian Peninsula only in Oman, through the Irano-Turanian region, with a centre of species diversity in Trkiye (14 species) and around the Eastern Mediterranean through North Africa as far as Morocco. As such, its distribution offers a prospective model for understanding aspects of East-West Mediterranean biogeography. The genus was revised by Huber-Morath in 1964 with a focus on groups from Anatolian Trkiye but the taxonomy and biogeography of the genus have never been investigated as a whole. This talk presents the results of the first genomic study of the genus, and indeed the first comprehensive phylogenetic study of the genus. We generated sequence data for between one and five specimens of each of the 21 recognised species, plus four outgroups from other genera in the tribe Hedysareae. These data were assessed using Bayesian and ML analyses to produce a comprehensive phylogeny for the group. The purpose of this presentation is to introduce and discuss the results of these phylogenetic analyses in taxonomic and biogeographical contexts. Particular attention is paid to the relationships between Irano-Turanian and Mediterranean floristic regions, ecoregions and habitat preferences. In addition, morphological patterns such as spinescence, corolla, colour, leaflet pairs, and peduncle are interpreted in the light of the phylogeny.