Traditional phylogenies based on analysis of multiple genes have failed to obtain a well-resolved evolutionary history for the backbone of the Asian Palmate group of Araliaceae, the largest clade of the family. In this study we applied the genome skimming approach of next-generation sequencing to address whether the lack of resolution at the base of the Asian Palmate tree is due to molecular sampling error or the footprint of an ancient radiation. Twenty-nine complete plastid genomes of Araliaceae (17 newly sequenced) were analyzed (RAxML, Beast, Lagrange, BioGeoBears) to provide the first phylogenomic reconstruction of the group (95% of genera included). As a result, the early divergences of the Asian Palmate group have been clarified but the backbone of its core is not totally resolved, with short internal branches pointing to an ancient radiation scenario. East Asia is inferred as the most likely ancestral area for the Asian Palmate group (early Upper Cretaceous and the Paleocene) from which an early colonization of the Neotropics is inferred during the late Paleocene – early Eocene. The radiation of the core took place during the Paleocene – early Eocene, most likely in the context of the Boreotropical hypothesis. Recurrent episodes of southward migration (to the tropics) coupled with northern latitude local extinctions (promoting lineages geographic isolation) and northward expansion (promoting lineages contact that erased the trace of preceding geographic isolation) are hypothesized to have linked to the alternation of the cold and warm periods of the Eocene.