Tulipa: the taxonomy and evolutionary history of the genus and its impact on conservation priorities in Central Asia
type: CreativeWork
description: Tulips are one of the most recognisable plants with their current horticultural trade estimated as a billion-euro industry. This trade initially relied heavily on wild specimens but now relies less on natural diversity. Yet, wild tulips are an important genetic reserve for future breeding efforts, especially for disease resistance. They also have significant cultural value, can act as ecological indicators, and support insect populations. Their taxonomy is notoriously complex, complicating their study and conservation. Most taxa grow in Central Asia, which has been proposed as the place of origin of this genus, albeit with limited evidence. Many tulips are declining in this area, but there is no cohesive regional overview of the genus. Here, we address phylogeny and taxonomy within the genus, then using this insight to explore the evolutionary history of Tulipa and its potential to inform conservation priorities in Central Asia. First, we used modern phylogenetic techniques, with extensive sampling of the genus including large amounts of wild material collected during three fieldwork seasons, to generate both a plastome based and 35S rDNA phylogeny. These phylogenies allowed us to make a number of taxonomic decisions with respect to the synonymization and reinstatement of a number of species. We also reorganised the higher-level taxonomic groups of this genus recognising a new subgenus, Eduardoregelia, and simplifying the sections of this genus, primarily merging Tulipa, Tulipanum, Lanatae, Vinistriatae, and Spiranthera into one broader section. Within this work we identified a new species, Tulipa toktogulica, which we formally describe within this thesis as well. Second, we used molecular dating techniques to estimate the ages of nodes on the tulip species phylogeny. With this dated phylogeny we modelled the biogeographical history of the genus, generated a lineage through time plot, and assessed the phylogenetic signal for the trait of genome size, which has commo…
abstract: Tulips are one of the most recognisable plants with their current horticultural trade estimated as a billion-euro industry. This trade initially relied heavily on wild specimens but now relies less on natural diversity. Yet, wild tulips are an important genetic reserve for future breeding efforts, especially for disease resistance. They also have significant cultural value, can act as ecological indicators, and support insect populations. Their taxonomy is notoriously complex, complicating their study and conservation. Most taxa grow in Central Asia, which has been proposed as the place of origin of this genus, albeit with limited evidence. Many tulips are declining in this area, but there is no cohesive regional overview of the genus. Here, we address phylogeny and taxonomy within the genus, then using this insight to explore the evolutionary history of Tulipa and its potential to inform conservation priorities in Central Asia. First, we used modern phylogenetic techniques, with extensive sampling of the genus including large amounts of wild material collected during three fieldwork seasons, to generate both a plastome based and 35S rDNA phylogeny. These phylogenies allowed us to make a number of taxonomic decisions with respect to the synonymization and reinstatement of a number of species. We also reorganised the higher-level taxonomic groups of this genus recognising a new subgenus, Eduardoregelia, and simplifying the sections of this genus, primarily merging Tulipa, Tulipanum, Lanatae, Vinistriatae, and Spiranthera into one broader section. Within this work we identified a new species, Tulipa toktogulica, which we formally describe within this thesis as well. Second, we used molecular dating techniques to estimate the ages of nodes on the tulip species phylogeny. With this dated phylogeny we modelled the biogeographical history of the genus, generated a lineage through time plot, and assessed the phylogenetic signal for the trait of genome size, which has commo…
author: Wilson, Brett
language: eng
keywords: Conservation, Phylogenetics, Red Listing, Species Distribution Modelling, Taxonomy, Wild tulips
license: https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/
date published: 2022-09-28
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:07Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.94432