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Minuartia s.l. ( Caryophyllaceae) is polyphyletic, with its species belonging to eleven major clades, all of which have been recognized at the generic rank. Cherleria is one of these segregate genera, based on the Linnaean species Cherleria sedoides. Its centre of diversity is on the Balkan Peninsula, but species also occur in the European and North American high mountains and in the Arctic. The species of Cherleria show ecological, especially substrate, differentiation and multiple colonisations of alpine habitats. We make new combinations for the 17 (of 20) taxa in Cherleria that do not yet have Cherleria names and provide a key to all species of the genus. Article history: Received 23 July 2016; peer-review completed 14 September 2016; received in revised form 7 December 2016; accepted for publication 21 December 2016. Citation: Moore A. J. & Dillenberger M. S. 2017: A conspectus of the genus Cherleria ( Minuartia s.l., Caryophyllaceae). - Willdenowia 47: 5-14. doi: Version of record first published online on 09 February 2017 ahead of inclusion in April 2017 issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

* Premise of the study: Substrate specialization is often considered an important factor in evolutionary diversification. A classic example of divergence related to different substrate types is the dichotomy between calcicole and calcifuge plants on calcare ous and siliceous substrates as found in the European Alps. When closely related species with contrasting substrate preferences are found in the same area, it is generally hypothesized that they diverged where they now occur. However, it is possible that Alpine edaphic diversity instead allows the coexistence of related species whose edaphic differentiation took place deeper in the phylogeny, in some other part of the range of their clades. * Methods: We used sequences of the nuclear internal and external transcribed spacer regions to examine the origin of substrate differentiation in Minuartia series Laricifoliae, which contains many edaphic endemics, including a pair of Alpine taxa with contrasting substrate preferences: Minuartia langii (calcicole) and M. laricifolia (calcifuge). * Key results: Minuartia langii and M. laricifolia are each more closely related to Balkan species than they are to each other and reached the Alps independently. The clade to which they belong is ancestrally calcicole. Minuartia langii inherited the ancestral ecology, while M. laricifolia is part of a subclade with serpentine endemics and one substrate generalist. * Conclusions: In the study group, taxa with contrasting substrate preferences did not diverge in the Alps. Instead, taxa whose substrate differentiation arose elsewhere, likely on the Balkan Peninsula, were preadapted to take advantage of Alpine substrate diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serpentine soils harbour a unique flora that is rich in endemics. We examined the evolution of serpentine endemism in Minuartia laricifolia, which has two ecologically distinct subspecies with disjunct distributions: subsp. laricifolia on siliceous rocks in the western Alps and eastern Pyrenees and subsp. ophiolitica on serpentine in the northern Apennines. We analysed AFLPs and chloroplast sequences from 30 populations to examine their relationships and how their current distributions and ecologies were influenced by Quaternary climatic changes. Minuartia laricifolia was divided into four groups with a BAPS cluster analysis of the AFLP data, one group consisted only of subsp. ophiolitica, while three groups were found within subsp. laricifolia: Maritime Alps, north-western Alps and central Alps. The same groups were recovered in a neighbour-joining tree, although subsp. ophiolitica was nested within the Maritime Alps group of subsp. laricifolia. Subspecies ophiolitica contained three different chloroplast haplotypes, which were also found in the Maritime Alps group of subsp. laricifolia. Given its high genetic diversity, subsp. ophiolitica appears to have arisen from subsp. laricifolia by vicariance instead of by long-distance dispersal. Genetic and geographic evidence point to the Maritime Alps populations of subsp. laricifolia as the closest relatives of subsp. ophiolitica. We hypothesize that M. laricifolia was also able to grow on nonserpentine rocks in the northern Apennines during glacial periods when the vegetation was more open, but that only the serpentine-adapted populations were able to persist until the present due to their competitive exclusion from more favourable habitats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]