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Dryad

Phylogenetics and demography of the western North American endemic Pacific Laurasian Clade of Isoëtes

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Apr 14, 2025 version files 115.59 MB

Abstract

The hydrophilic lycopod genus Isoëtes L. has a naturally patchy distribution, made more extreme due to anthropogenic habitat degradation. We used a combination of population genetic and multi-locus molecular phylogenetic approaches to understand the effects of this patchiness on the evolution and demography of the Pacific Laurasian Clade (PLC) species, to decipher the relationships among the three PLC species, and to determine the degree of isolation of the different populations. We discovered that the populations studied are highly structured and that two of the species, as currently circumscribed, are not monophyletic. Instead, our phylogenetic results suggest that there are eight species within the PLC; of these eight, five appear to have been the result of a rapid radiation that was followed by a prolonged period of stasis.