Format: ORAL

Julia Bechteler1, Adriel Sierra2, Alfons Schfer-Verwimp3, Gaik Ee Lee4, Kathrin Feldberg5, Alexander Schmidt5, Gordon Burleigh6, Stuart McDaniel6, Christine Davis6, Emily Sessa6, Dietmar Quandt7, Juan Carlos Villarreal A.2

1 Plant Biodiversity and Ecology, iES Landau, Institute for Environmental Sciences, RPTU University of Kaiserslautern-Landau, Fortstraße 7, 76829 Landau, Germany 2 Département de Biologie, Université Laval, Québec, Québec, G1V 0A6 Canada 3 Mittlere Letten 11, 88634 Herdwangen-Schönach, Germany 4 Faculty of Science and Marine Environment/Institute of Tropical Biodiversity and Sustainable Development, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21020 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia 5 Georg-August-Universität Göttingen 6 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Florida, 220 Bartram Hall, Gainesville, FL, 32611 USA 7 Nees-Institute for Plant Biodiversity, University of Bonn, Meckenheimer Allee 170, 53115 Bonn, Germany

The leafy Lejeuneaceae is the largest family of liverworts with some 1.900 species in 88 genera and comprise a high morphological and ecological diversity in tropical and sub-tropical ecosystems. Most species have an epiphytic lifestyle with a rather large proportion of species adapted to epiphyllous microhabitats. Specific characteristics of epiphytic and epihyllous Lejeuneaceae are, among others, a small size, rhizoid discs, inflated leaf lobules and a short life cycle. The evolution of these epiphyllous and epiphytic lineages with their morphological and life history traits, as well as habitat transitions from terrestrial to epiphytic within the Lejeuneaceae is still poorly understood as a well-supported backbone phylogeny is lacking for this family. Beside exploring large Sanger-Sequencing datasets of nuclear and plastic markers, we use nuclear target enrichment data based on the GoFlag probe kit to untangle the evolutionary history of Lejeuenaceae that started during the Jurrassic and Cretaceous. Our study will give novel insights into the evolution of potential habitat-bound life-history traits associated with the independent colonization of unstable epiphyllous habitats by several Lejeuneaceae lineages.