Background: The East Asian subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests (EBLFs) harbor remarkable biodiversity. However, their historical assembly remains unclear. To gain new insights into the assembly of this biome, we generated a molecular phylogeny of one of its essential elements, the tribe Perseeae (Lauraceae).

Results: Our plastid tree topologies were robust to analyses based on different plastid regions, data partitioning, nucleotide substitution saturation and gap handling strategies. We found that Perseeae comprised six major clades and started to colonize the subtropical EBLFs of east Asia in the early Miocene. The diversification rates of Perseeae accelerated twice in the late Miocene.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the intensified precipitation in East Asia in the early Miocene might have facilitated range expansions of the drought-sensitive subtropical EBLFs and establishment of Perseeae within this biome. By the late Miocene, assembly and diversification within the EBLFs had become rapid.