Clades, Clocks, and Continents: Historical and Biogeographical Analysis of Myrtaceae, Vochysiaceae, and Relatives in the Southern Hemisphere

Abstract

Some of the most interesting but still most contentious disjunct biogeographical distributions involve Southern Hemisphere tropical and warm temperate families. The PHMV clade of Myrtales includes four families (Psiloxylaceae, Heteropyxidaceae, Myrtaceae, and Vochysiaceae) that exhibit a number of these biogeographical patterns. The related Psiloxylaceae and Heteropyxidaceae are small families restricted in distribution to the recent volcanic Mascarene Islands to the east of Madagascar and to southeast Africa, respectively. Myrtaceae are found on three major Gondwanan regions (South America, Australasia, and Africa). Because the New World taxa are almost exclusively fleshy fruited, it is unclear whether the family distribution is a classic Gondwanan vicariance pattern or results from one or more long‐distance dispersal events over ocean barriers. The Vochysiaceae represent one of a handful of families with amphi‐Atlantic distributions vigorously argued to support both long‐distance dispersal over the Atla...