Andean origin and diversification of the genus Perezia, an ancient-lineage of Asteraceae

APODACA, M. J.; CRISCI, J. V.; KATINAS, L.

Smithsonian Contributions to Botany

Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press

Lugar: Washington DC.; Año: 2015 vol. 102 p. 1 - 28

0081-024X

The Andean uplift in South America acted as a dispersal route for plant and animal lineages and as a driver for promoting rapid diversification. Perezia (Asteraceae) constitutes a key genus for understanding these events because it is an Andean-centered genus and belongs to the early diverging lineages in the phylogenetic tree of the family. Previous studies in Perezia proposed several evolutionary lines and alternative areas of origin. A phylogenetic morphological analysis was performed to test these hypotheses and the Ancestral Areas and Dispersal-Vicariance analyses were applied. The results of the phylogenetic analysis support Perezia as a monophyletic taxon, including the recently excluded Perezia nutans and P. prenanthoides, and support most of the previously proposed evolutionary lines. The biogeographic results suggest the southern Andes as the probable ancestral area for Perezia, with multiple dispersals. Supported by the geological, palaeoclimatological, and fossil evidence it is inferred that the ancestor of Perezia may have inhabited the areas above the humid, temperate forests in the southern Andes during the Tertiary. KEYWORDS: Climatic changes, morphology, Mutisioideae, phylogenetic reconstruction, South America.