Numerous plant species are expanding their native ranges due to anthropogenic environmental change. Because cytotypes of polyploid complexes often show similar morphologies, there may be unnoticed range expansions (i.e. cryptic invasions) of one cytotype into regions where only the other cytotype is native. We critically revised herbarium specimens of diploid and tetraploid Centaurea stoebe, collected across Europe between 1790 and 2023. Based on their distribution in natural and relict habitats and phylogeographic data, we estimated the native ranges of both cytotypes. Diploids are native across their entire European range, whereas tetraploids are native only to South-Eastern Europe and have recently expanded their range toward Central Europe. The proportion of tetraploids has exponentially increased over time in their expanded but not in their native range. This cryptic invasion predominantly occurred in ruderal habitats and enlarged the climatic niche of tetraploids toward a more oceanic climate. We conclude that spatio-temporally explicit assessments of range shifts, habitat preferences and niche evolution can improve our understanding of cryptic invasions. We also emphasize the value of herbarium specimens for accurate estimation of species´ native ranges, with fundamental implications for the design of research studies and the assessment of biodiversity trends.

College of Resources and Environment Huazhong Agricultural University Wuhan 430070 China

Department of Biology University of Fribourg Fribourg 1700 Switzerland

Department of Botany and Zoology Masaryk University Brno 60200 Czech Republic

Department of Botany Charles University Prague 12801 Czech Republic

Department of Ecology and Evolution University of Lausanne Lausanne 1015 Switzerland

Faculty of Informatics and Data Science University of Regensburg Regensburg 93040 Germany

German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research Halle Jena Leipzig Leipzig 04103 Germany

Herbarium collections Charles University Prague 12801 Czech Republic

Information and Communication Technology Cluster Singapore Institute of Technology Singapore 828608 Singapore

Institute of Botany Czech Academy of Sciences Průhonice 25243 Czech Republic

Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics University of Lausanne Lausanne 1015 Switzerland

Institute of Geobotany Martin Luther University Halle Wittenberg Halle 06108 Germany

M G Kholodny Institute of Botany National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Kyiv 01601 Ukraine

State Museum of Natural History National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Lviv 79008 Ukraine

W Szafer Institute of Botany Polish Academy of Sciences Kraków 31 512 Poland

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