Hotspot of evolution: the Philippines

The Philippines are a hotspot of plant biodiversity. Botanists from the Chair of Plant Systematics at the University of Bayreuth discovered reasons for this analysing the evolutionary history and biogeographic relationships of the Philippine members of the pantropical genus Ixora: The Philippines were colonized at least five times independently and from different geographic regions by plants of this genus. The liaison of the different lineages became the starting point for the evolution of new species.