Studies on the origin and evolutionary history of closely related plants help to understand patterns of diversity of the mountain flora in addition to providing the basis for their identification. The genus Tephroseris includes three endemic taxa with small and disjoint distributions in the high mountains of the Iberian Peninsula and on the Maritime Alps. Tephroseris balbisiana is native to the Southwestern Alps, Tephroseris elodes to Sierra Nevada, and Tephroseris coincyi to Sierra de Gredos. These taxa have been treated under different combinations of species or subspecies due to limited morphological differentiation, but comprehensive studies have not been published so far. By combining information from phylogeny, molecular dating and genome size, we demonstrated the taxonomic distinctiveness between T. balbisiana and the two Iberian taxa. Although the lack of variability in plastid DNA hampered the precise estimation of the diversification events, some of the recovered patterns suggested a recent divergence of T. balbisiana, T. elodes and T. coincyi dating back to the Pleistocene (0.5–2.8 Mya). However, niche modeling supported a geographical overlap between the three taxa during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Moreover, the fragmentation of their ancient larger distribution range, particularly in the lower elevations of the Iberian Peninsula, and migration to glacial refuges in the south-western Alps, provide the most plausible explanations for the current disjoint distribution within the Mediterranean mountains. Furthermore, based on the evidence we gathered, we inferred that the alpine T. balbisiana, as well as the Iberian taxa, should be considered as three distinct subspecies.

研究密切相关的植物的起源和进化史，除了为识别提供依据外，还有助于了解山地植物区系的多样性模式。Tephroseris属包括三个特有类群，它们分布在伊比利亚半岛的高山和滨海阿尔卑斯山，分布范围小且不相交。Tephroseris balbisiana原产于西南阿尔卑斯山，Tephroseris elodes产于内华达山脉，Tephroseris coincyi前往格雷多斯山脉。由于形态分化有限，这些类群已被分类为不同的物种或亚种组合，但迄今为止尚未发表全面的研究。通过结合系统发育、分子测年和基因组大小的信息，我们证明了T. balbisiana和两个伊比利亚类群之间的分类学独特性。尽管质体 DNA 缺乏变异性阻碍了对多样化事件的精确估计，但一些恢复的模式表明T. balbisiana、T. elodes和T. coincyi最近存在分歧可以追溯到更新世（0.5–2.8 Mya）。然而，生态位模型支持末次盛冰期（LGM）期间三个类群之间存在地理重叠。此外，它们古代较大分布范围的破碎化，特别是在伊比利亚半岛的低海拔地区，以及迁移到西南阿尔卑斯山的冰川避难所，为目前地中海山脉内不相交的分布提供了最合理的解释。此外，根据我们收集的证据，我们推断高山T. balbisiana以及伊比利亚分类单元应被视为三个不同的亚种。