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Disentangling The Subalpine Marshmarigold Species Complex: The Cytogeography, Phylogeography, And Systematics Of Caltha Biflora Dc., C. Chionophila Greene, And C. Leptosepala Dc. (Ranunculaceae), Keir Wefferling

Theses and Dissertations

Subalpine marshmarigolds (Caltha biflora DC., C. chionophila DC., and C. leptosepala Greene, Ranunculaceae) are herbaceous perennials that grow in western North American mountainous and subarctic regions, from Alaska and Yukon in the north to California, Arizona, and New Mexico in the south. Variation in morphology across the range has generally led to recognition of a single species, though some have described up to nine species in the complex. In this dissertation, I describe our approaches to disentangling reticulate evolution across the geographical range of the subalpine marshmarigold complex, including chromosome counts (Chapter II), genome size estimates (Chapter III), morphology (Chapters …