Format: ORAL

Laura P. Lagomarsino1, Ana M. Bedoya1, Laura A. Frost2

1 Shirley C. Tucker Herbarium, Louisiana State University, USA 2 University of South Alabama, Mobile, USA

The Andean mountains of western South America are one of the Worlds most species-rich biodiversity hotspots and are home to almost 15% of all angiosperm species. Much of this diversity originated in concert with relatively recent mountain uplift and the resulting landscape changes, including high levels of habitat heterogeneity. In this talk, I will discuss how Andean uplift has left its mark on the evolution of its flora using Freziera (Pentaphylaceaceae) as a primary example. Freziera is an Andean-centered clade of 75 species of trees and shrubs that diversified during the late stages of Northern Andean uplift in the last 12 million years. Subsequently, Freziera dispered into the Central Andes repeatedly. Across the cloud forest habitats that it can now be found, it displays an impressive diversity of leaf morphology, which we demonstrate is connected to local environmental conditions (especially precipitation and seasonality). Finally, Frezieras high levels of phylogenomic complexity can be attributed, in part, to high diversification rates and short times between speciation and introgression both scenarios whose impacts were heightened by Andean uplift. Throughout the talk, comparisons between Freziera and other Andean plant clades will highlight generalitiesand idiosyncraciesof Andean plant evolution.