Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius, Asteraceae) is a source of high-quality edible oil growing in moisture-limited environments. Despite its economic importance, the relationships to close wild species in Carthamus and the presence and relationships of ecotypes within safflower are still not fully clarified. Here we use genotyping-by-sequencing to identify the wild progenitor of C. tinctorius, infer phylogenetic relationship within the series Carthamus and identify groups of closely related lineages within cultivated safflower. Phylogenetic and population genomic analyses found C. palaestinus to be the closest relative and single progenitor of C. tinctorius, which confirms the Levant as the area of domestication of the crop. Flow cytometry showed all analyzed samples of C. oxyacantha, C. palaestinus and C. tinctorius to be diploid (2n = 2x = 24) with 2C genome sizes of 2.4-2.7 pg. Analyses of a set of 114 worldwide distributed safflower accessions arrived at two to five genetic groups, which showed, however, no correlation with the geographic origins of these accessions. From this, we conclude that the trade of safflower seeds resulted in multiple introductions of genotypes from the Levant into other areas with suitable climate conditions for the plant, as well as exchange of genotypes among these areas.
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