The hub of Africa: Bayreuth study traces tropical origins of Apocynaceae

The team of the Chair of Plant Systematics (including BayCEER members Nicolai Nürk, Ulrich Meve und Sigrid Liede-Schumann) in collaboration with research partners in Brazil, has gained insights into the evolutionary development of the dogbane family (Apocynaceae). The dogbane family is one of the ten largest plant families in the world and originated in the tropics about 85 million years ago, with Africa being the centre and hub for the evolution of the Apocynaceae over the last 80 million years. The current study (Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution) shows that a successive expansion of geographic distribution and ecological tolerance occurred, closely related to newly evolved functional traits, such as wind-dispersed seeds, as well as pollen grains transmitted in packets (pollinia) rather than individually.