Angiosperm evolution and biogeography across the floristically diverse Canary Islands archipelago

Description

A fundamental characteristic of biodiversity is its uneven distribution across the Tree of Life. A prominent example of this is the flora of the Canary Islands, which comprises many spectacular species-rich radiations and dozens of depauperate, single-species lineages. Addressing why some lineages have diversified, whilst others have not, requires phylogenomic datasets, which can provide unparalleled insight into the dynamics governing diversity unevenness. For example, time-calibrated phylogenetic trees can be used to estimate dynamic biogeographic processes (such as rates of speciation, extinction, and colonisation), allowing us to infer the drivers of radiations and depauperate lineages alike. However, a community-wide phylogenetic dataset for the Canarian flora that would allow for such analyses is lacking. Here, we present a time-calibrated molecular phylogeny including over 800 species of native Canary Islands flowering plants (~60 % of the native flora), constructed using hybrid capture-based target enrichment of the angiosperm-wide 353 bait set. We sequenced the majority of species and lineages that make up the native angiosperm flora of the archipelago and, to estimate the colonisation and branching times of the Canarian lineages, integrated the sequences into a broader, time-calibrated angiosperm phylogeny based on the same angiosperm-353 gene set. Crucially, to provide an estimate of colonisation times, we also sampled the closest mainland relatives of each lineage. We also present an estimated number of independent colonisation events for all native angiosperm genera of the archipelago, inferred from the phylogenetics literature and refined using our phylogenetic data. From the temporal information contained within the molecular phylogeny, we generate a novel reconstruction of the biogeographic history and temporal diversity dynamics of angiosperms in the Canary Islands. By combining biogeography, ecology, and evolution, our analyses present novel insights into the factors underlying the community dynamics of the near-complete flora of a large, floristically diverse oceanic archipelago.

Period	22-Jul-2025
Event title	XX International Botanical Congress
Event type	Conference
Conference number	20
Location	Madrid, SpainShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International