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Twelve accessions classified as Pisum sativum subsp. elatius, mostly from West and Central Mediterranean, were analysed for three markers from different cellular genomes: rbcL (plastid genome), coxI (mitochondrial genome) and SCA (nuclear genome). Based on geographical distribution of their allele combinations analysed in this and the earlier study, we suggest a putative history of wild representatives of P. sativum. The ancestor of this species belonged to lineage A ( coxI+, rbcL+, SCA f); it appeared in East Mediterranean, then spread westward most probably during one of the Pleistocene coolings when the sea was smaller, so that representatives of lineage A remained in the Eastern Mediterranean and on the islands of Sicily and Menorca. Mutation leading to the loss of the restriction site for PsiI in coxI−, gave rise to lineage C ( coxI−, rbcL+, SCA f) which spread widely in the Mediterranean and is now found in France, Greece and Ethiopia. Mutation leading to rbcL− gave rise to lineage D ( coxI−, rbcL−, SCA f), now found in Egypt ( P. sativum subsp. jomardii) and Spain. Mutational transition of SCA f to SCA s most probably took place in North-Eastern Mediterranean since the resulting lineage B ( coxI−, rbcL−, SCA s) now occupies the Tauro-Caucasian area. In Asia Minor and North Israel, line B met the ancestral line A so that both lines coexist there presently. The lineage B gave rise to the cultivated P. sativum subsp. sativum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]