What do molecular data tell us about glacial refugia of Central-European woody plants?

The current species distribution in Europe was influenced by Quaternary climatic and environmental changes when alteration of glacial and interglacial periods was the most important factor. The traditional view was that European trees survived unfavourable times in glacial refugia on southern European peninsulas. With growing paleoecological knowledge, many discrepancies in this theory have appeared and evidences about possible survival of trees in northern cryptic refugia have emerged. The development of molecular techniques has made it possible to verify the results of palynological studies, but have also provided new insights into refugia and colonisation routes of European trees. Our review aims at: summarising the usability of molecular markers in phylogeographical studies, describing the results of available molecular studies on this topic and finding common characteristics of postglacial histories of European trees.