The ubiquity of alpine plant radiations: from the Andes to the Hengduan Mountains

• DOI: 10.1111/nph.13230
• Publication Date: 2015-01-21T13:51:43Z
• Authors: Colin E. Hughes; Guy W. Atchison
• Keywords: Alpine plant

Summary Alpine plant radiations are compared across the world's major mountain ranges and shown to be overwhelmingly young fast, largely confined Pliocene Pleistocene, some of them apparently in early explosive phase radiation. Accelerated diversification triggered by island‐like ecological opportunities following final phases uplift, many cases enabled key adaptation perennial habit, provides a general model for alpine radiations. growth form evolution facilitated perenniality compelling evidence release suggests striking parallels between alpine, especially tropicalpine radiations, island more generally. These suggest that mountains offer an excellent comparative system explaining evolutionary Contents 275 I. Introduction II. Mountains as islands 277 III. Lupinus : radiation IV. Perenniality life‐form disparification 279 V. A understanding VI. Future perspectives 280 Acknowledgements References