Study System
The Aquilegia viridiflora complex (Ranunculaceae), includingA. viridiflora Pall., A. hebeica Erst and A. kamelinii Erst, is a perennial herbaceous plant throughout the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. Here, to determine whether theA. viridiflora complex collected shared the most recent common ancestor (MRCA), we also collected other congener species whose distribution overlapped with that of the A. viridiflora complex, includingA. amurensis Kom., A. ecalcarata Maxim., A. japonica Nakai et Hara, A. oxysepala Trautv. Et Mey. var. kansuensisBruhl, A. oxysepala Trautv. Et Mey., and A. yabeana Kitag. seeds, as reported in our previous study (W. Zhang et al., 2021). Additionally, seeds of Paraquilegia microphylla were collected as an outgroup. Seeds of the A. viridiflora complex were collected from 20 locations covering its current distribution range, and all voucher specimens were identified by Dr Hongxing Xiao and deposited in the Northeast Normal University Herbaria (Figure 1A; Table S1). Each of the maternal plants was separated from the others by > 50 m.