Format: ORAL

Cyllne Chatellier1,2*, Baumel Alex3, Christine Tollon2, Sylvain Santoni2, James Molina1 BouchaibKhadari1,2,4 *

1Conservatoire Botanique National Méditerranéen de Porquerolles, Antenne Occitanie-Méditerranée-Occitanie, Montferrier-sur-Lez, France. 2AGAP Institut, University of Montpellier, CIRAD, INRAE, Institut Agro, F-34398 Montpellier, France 3 IMBE, Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d'Ecologie marine et continentale,Aix Marseille University, Station Marine Endoume, ch. Batterie des Lions Marseille, France 4Conservatoire Botanique National Méditerranéen , UMR AGAP Institut, ARCAD F-34398 Montpellier, France

While the protection statute of threatened plants is designed at species level, delimitating plant species is a challenge for conservation biologists, especially for diversified taxa evolving in sympatry. Species delimitation exist at the interface of population genetic and phylogenetic analyses. Here, we aimed to delimitate species to question the species statue of a rare and protected taxa in the Limonium confusum group. Limonium cuspidatum(Delort) Erben has a restricted range geographical distribution from Narbonne to Marseille in south France. Morphological descriptors are not sufficient to clearly distinguish this taxon from three others taxa cited in the same environments in the south of France : Limonium confusum (Godr. Gren.) Fourr. 1869; Limonium legrandii (Gaut. &Timb.-Lagr.) Erben, 1978; Limonium densissimum (Pignatti) Pignatti, 1971, all belonging to the Limonium confusum group.To understand the evolutionary history of these populations and taxa belonging to Mediterranean lineage of Limonium genus, we analysed a comprehensive sampling of populations of L. confusum (23 from France, 8 from Spain) and 29 Mediteranean Limonium species by combining population genetic and phylogenetic approaches. First, using population genetic analysis of 31 populations of L. confusum with 12 Simple Sequence Repeat loci, we clearly identified three genetic groups. A first group includes Iberian-Provençal population,from the salty mud of the Bouches-du-Rhône (France) to the Tarragona and Ebro Delta region (Spain). The second group includes populations of the salt marshes located in the Languedoc coast between Leucate and Vendres (France). The third group includes three disjunct populations which however share similar ecological conditions. Second, we selected samples based on genetic and geographic origin and added representative species of Mediterranean Lineage of Limonium genus for phylogenetic analysis using plastid DNA variation. We expect to give insights for delimitating species of L. confusum and to define populations, which have to be protected in the future.