The aim of this study was to quantify the phenotypic differences amongst the taxa included in Veronica subgenus Pentasepalae, represented in the western Mediterranean area. In combination with previously obtained data on genotypic differences, this enabled the recognition of eight taxonomic units. The delimitation of the boundaries among species and subspecies was mainly based on molecular data, whereas the best characters to discriminate taxa were selected after an accurate study of herbarium material and living populations. Such a selection was also supported by a detailed morphometric study of 30 quantitative leaf traits in 88 populations. Several morphological characters, including the length of the trichomes, length of the petiole and leaf division, were found to be robust, and could be useful in the identification of the taxa involved. As a conclusion, a key to the taxa is proposed, as well as a complete nomenclatural treatment for the group, which includes the typification of several names.

The Afromontane and Afroalpine areas constitute some of the main biodiversity hotspots of Africa. They are particularly rich in plant endemics, but the biogeographic origins and evolutionary processes leading to this outstanding diversity are poorly understood. We performed phylogenomic and biogeographic analyses of one of the most species-rich plant genera in these mountains, Helichrysum (Compositae-Gnaphalieae). Most previous studies have focused on Afroalpine elements of Eurasian origin, and the southern African origin of Helichrysum provides an interesting counterexample. We obtained a comprehensive nuclear dataset from 304 species (≈50% of the genus) using target-enrichment with the Compositae1061 probe set. Summary-coalescent and concatenation approaches combined with paralog recovery yielded congruent, well-resolved phylogenies. Ancestral range estimations revealed that Helichrysum originated in arid southern Africa, whereas the southern African grasslands were the source of most lineages that dispersed within and outside Africa. Colonization of the tropical Afromontane and Afroalpine areas occurred repeatedly throughout the Miocene–Pliocene. This timing coincides with mountain uplift and the onset of glacial cycles, which together may have facilitated both speciation and intermountain gene flow, contributing to the evolution of the Afroalpine flora.

Climate Change is the most important threat to our society and all species on Earth. Large alterations in the climate are affecting every aspect of our society and in order to limit this impact we must decarbonize the economy before 2050. Although science presents solid evidence on the magnitude of the problem and outlines precisely the consequences, people do not act accordingly and do not consider this issue a priority for their survival. The reason behind this paradox might be a non-appropriate Social Representation of Climate Change in society as the Social Representation conditions and forms the response of the society. In this paper, we extend previous investigations of how this Social Representation is formed in order to find ways to improve it through a Massive Online Open Course on the Science of Climate Change. Using a validated questionnaire, we investigated the knowledge dimension of the Social Representation of Climate Change in a group of students of a MOOC on Climate Change. A pre- and posttest revealed general improvements in all the categories that were considered in this study. A detailed analysis showed different degrees of improvement for different groups, providing new insights in the efficiency of knowledge-based online courses. Well designed Massive Online Open Courses, based on scientific evidence, targeted to the general public might improve the Social Representation of Climate Change, which may in turn trigger awareness and an effective mobilization to address this important and urgent topic.