plants Article Biogeographic Overview of Ulmaceae: Diversity, Distribution, Ecological Preferences, and Conservation Status Yann Fragnière 1 , Yi-Gang Song 2 , Laurence Fazan 1, Steven R. Manchester 3, Giuseppe Garfì 4 and Gregor Kozlowski 1,2,5,* 1 Department of Biology and Botanic Garden, University of Fribourg, Chemin du Musée 10, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland;
[email protected] (Y.F.);
[email protected] (L.F.) 2 Eastern China Conservation Centre for Wild Endangered Plant Resources, Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden, 3888 Chenhua Road, Songjiang, Shanghai 201602, China;
[email protected] 3 Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, 1659 Museum Rd, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA; steven@flmnh.ufl.edu 4 Institute of Biosciences and BioResources—National Research Council, Corso Calatafimi 414, 90129 Palermo, Italy; giuseppe.garfi@ibbr.cnr.it 5 Natural History Museum Fribourg, Chemin du Musée 6, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +41-26-300-88-42 Abstract: The elm family (Ulmaceae) is a woody plant group with important scientific, societal, and economic value. We aim to present the first biogeographic synthesis investigating the global diversity, distribution, ecological preferences, and the conservation status of Ulmaceae. A literature review was performed to explore the available data for all extant species. Our study made it possible to map the actual global distribution of Ulmaceae with high precision, and to elucidate the centers of diversity, located mainly in China and in the southeastern USA. A detailed comparative analysis Citation: Fragnière, Y.; Song, Y.-G.; of the macroclimatic niche for each species was produced, which shows the general biogeographic Fazan, L.; Manchester, S.R.; Garfì, G.; pattern of the family and pinpoints the outlier species.