Journal of Integrative JIPB Plant Biology Tertiary montane origin of the Central Asian flora, evidence inferred from cpDNA sequences of Atraphaxis (Polygonaceae) † Ming‐Li Zhang1,2*, Stewart C. Sanderson3, Yan‐Xia Sun1 , Vyacheslav V. Byalt4 and Xiao‐Li Hao1,5 1Key Laboratory of Biogeography and Bioresource in Arid Land, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Research Article Urumqi 830011, China, 2Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China, 3Shrub Sciences Laboratory, Intermountain Research Station, Forest Service, US Department of Agriculture, Provo, UT 84601, USA, 4Komarov Botanical Institute, Russian Academy of † Sciences, St Petersburg RU‐197376, Russia, 5School of Life Science, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China. Present address: Wuhan Botanical Garden, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430074, China. *Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract Atraphaxis has approximately 25 species and a paleogeographic events, shrinkage of the inland Paratethys Sea distribution center in Central Asia. It has been previously used to at the boundary of the late Oligocene and early Miocene, and hypothesize an origin from montane forest. We sampled 18 the time intervals of cooling and drying of global climate from species covering three sections within the genus and 24 (22) Ma onward likely facilitated early diversification of sequenced five cpDNA spacers, atpB‐rbcL, psbK‐psbI, psbA‐ Atraphaxis, while rapid uplift of the Tianshan Mountains during trnH, rbcL, and trnL‐trnF. BEAST was used to reconstruct the late Miocene may have promoted later diversification. phylogenetic relationship and time divergences, and S‐DIVA and fi Lagrange were used, based on distribution area and ecotype Keywords: Allopatric diversi cation; Atraphaxis; biogeography; Central Asia flora; molecular clock; montane origin; phylogeny; Polygonaceae data, for reconstruction of ancestral areas and events.