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Using Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP), we explored the intraspecific phylogeography of the alpine vascular plant Bupleurum stellatum (Apiaceae), disjunctly distributed in the Alps and Corsica. Within the Alps, the species' distribution area is also not contiguous, spatially isolated groups of populations occuring in the Dolomites (Italy) and the Montafon (Austria). A main goal of our study was to explore the degree of differentiation of the isolated populations in Corsica, the Dolomites and the Montafon from the populations in the main distributional area and to test for hypotheses of vicariance or dispersal. We also sought a better general knowledge of glacial refugia of low alpine silicicolous plants. Phenetic as well as cladistic analyses of the AFLP multilocus phenotypes reveal a substantial north‐south split through the contiguous distribution area of B. stellatum in the Alps. The resulting …