‘Origin and relations of Mediterranean flora, phylogeography and genetic variability. Evolution and conservation/endangered status of species of the Macaronesian laurel forest’

Arnoldo Sánchez Guerra, Cristina Pardo Martín, Guillermo Amo de Paz, José Antonio Molina Abril, Mª Inés Messuti, Oscar Blanco Alcalá, Paloma Cubas Domínguez, Pradeep Kumar Divakar, Ruth del Prado, Thorsten Lumbsch, Zuzana Ferencova.

The present study will analyse population genetic diversity in order to assess the state of conservation of a number of important species present in parts of Spain. This will involve combining the phylogenetic information provided by two biological groups of disparate characteristics (lichenised fungi and vascular plants). The groups selected for the study are lichens of differing lineage of the family Parmeliaceae and angiosperms of the families Ericaceae (Arbutus) and Anacardiaceae (Pistacia).

We will look at a series of species from the main regions considered Mediterranean; among them, the Mediterranean basin itself, California and Lower California in North America, and Valparaiso in Chile. A comparison will also be carried out between the flora of the Macaronesian region (Canary Islands), considered paleomediterranean, and the Cape flora of South Africa. This last study will focus especially on lichens in view of the close relationship found in our earlier studies, which we now wish to test and develop.