Reconstructing the Complex Evolutionary History of the Papuasian Radiation Through Herbariomics.

With its large proportion of endemic taxa, complex geological past, and location at the confluence of the highly diverse Malesian and Australian floristic regions, Papuasia - the floristic region comprising the Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands - represents an ideal natural experiment in plant biogeography. However, scattered knowledge of its flora and limited representation in herbaria have hindered our understanding of the drivers of its diversity. Focusing on the woody angiosperm genus (Araliaceae), we ask whether its morphologically defined infrageneric groupings are monophyletic, when these lineages diverged, and where (within Papuasia or elsewhere) they diversified.