In a rapidly changing environment, because of habitat loss and
fragmentation, many plant species have become rare. We investigate
genetic variability between two small isolated populations of twinflower
from the Eastern Alps and three population from the core Boreal
distributional range. The results revealed three main clusters,
exemplars from the Boreal range are present in all three clusters. Very
low genetic variation within the two isolated Alpine populations and
very high genetic variation between the two Alpine populations was
found, despite their being only 73 km apart. Moreover, a low proportion
of distinct genotypes were found in the Alpine populations in comparison
to the Northern one. We conclude that the two isolated Alpine
populations are both glacial relict populations, based on the high
genetic variability between them, probably due to consecutive
bottlenecks and long-term isolation under specific environmental
conditions. However, glacial relicts, usually associated with vulnerable
habitats deserve urgent attention involving conservation countermeasures
especially from the perspective of climate change.