In this study, we critically revised and updated the checklist of native vascular plants of Mongolia. The checklist comprises 3,041 native vascular plant taxa (2,835 species and 206 infraspecific species) from 653 genera and 111 families, including 7 lycophytes, 41 ferns, 21 gymnosperms, and 2,972 angiosperms. In the angiosperms, we identified the 14 families with the greatest species richness, ranging from 50 to 456 taxa. Species endemism is also noted here; 102 taxa are endemic to Mongolia, and 275 taxa are sub-endemic that co-occur in adjacent countries. Since 2014, a total of 14 taxa have been described new to science based on morphological evidences. Moreover, five genera and 74 taxa were newly added to the flora of Mongolia. Based on our critical revisions, names of three families, 21 genera, and 230 species have been changed in comparison to the previous checklist, “Conspectus of the vascular plants of Mongolia” (2014).

Numerous studies have favored dispersal (colonization) over vicariance (past fragmentation) events to explain eastern Asian-North American distribution patterns. In plants, however the disjunction between eastern Asia and western North America has been rarely examined using the integration of phylogenetic, molecular dating, and biogeographical methods. Meanwhile, the biogeographic patterns within eastern Asia remain poorly understood. The goldthread genus Coptis Salisb. includes 15 species disjunctly distributed in North America, Japan, mainland China, and Taiwan. We present a dated phylogeny for Coptis under the optimal clock model and infer its historical biogeography by comparing different biogeographic models. The split of Coptis and Xanthorhiza Marshall occurred in the middle Miocene (ca. 15.47 Ma). Coptis started their diversification in the early late Miocene (ca. 9.55 Ma). A late Miocene vicariance event resulted in the eastern Asian and western North American disjunction in the genus. Within eastern Asia, dispersals from mainland Asia to Japan and from Japan to Taiwan occurred at ca. 4.85 Ma and at ca. 1.34 Ma, respectively. Our analyses provide evidence that both vicariance and dispersal events have played important roles in shaping the current distribution and endemism of Coptis, likely resulting from eustatic sea-level changes, mountain formation processes and an increasing drier and cooler climate from the middle Miocene onwards.

The Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) harbors extraordinarily high levels of biodiversity and endemism. The region is warming at a rate twice the global average, yet the evolutionary dynamics of its unique biota are poorly understood. Here, we used the endemic land plant genera of the QTP to investigate how its floristic endemism was shaped over time by Cenozoic geoclimatic changes. We first clarified that the QTP hosts 82 endemic land plant genera; we found that the origins of these endemic genera were most likely driven by ecological niche and elevation differentiation, caused by the uplift of the QTP and associated climate change. By sampling 37 land plant clades that together encompass 1,740 species, covering all 82 endemic genera, we show that QTP floristic endemism had emerged by the Early Eocene. Furthermore, the unique biodiversity of the QTP comprises a mix of indigenous elements and immigrants. Among the three subregions of the QTP (Plateau Platform, Himalaya, and the Hengduan Mountains), the processes associated with floristic endemism are asynchronous, reflecting different geoclimatic events with the Miocene as a particularly critical period. The relative contributions of in situ speciation and immigration to the unique biodiversity of the three subregions are also markedly different; in situ speciation dominated in the Hengduan Mountains, which hosts the oldest endemic components of the flora and has served as an important “pump” and “sink” of unique biodiversity. These findings provide insights into how past geoclimatic events may have shaped floristic endemism on the QTP and also have important conservation implications.

The Arctic tundra is a relatively young and new type of biome and is especially sensitive to the impacts of global warming. However, little is known about how the Arctic flora was shaped over time. Here we investigate the origin and evolutionary dynamics of the Arctic flora by sampling 32 angiosperm clades that together encompass 3626 species. We show that dispersal into the Arctic and in situ diversification within the Arctic have similar trends through time, initiating at approximately 10–9 Ma, increasing sharply around 2.6 Ma, and peaking around 1.0–0.7 Ma. Additionally, we discover the existence of a long-term dispersal corridor between the Arctic and western North America. Our results suggest that the initiation and diversification of the Arctic flora might have been jointly driven by progressive landscape and climate changes and sea-level fluctuations since the early Late Miocene. These findings have important conservation implications given rapidly changing climate conditions in the Arctic.

The evolutionary history of organisms with poor dispersal abilities usually parallels geological events. Collisions of the Indian and Arabian plates with Eurasia greatly changed Asian topography and affected regional and global climates as well as biotic evolution. However, the geological evolution of Asia related to these two collisions remains debated. Here, we used Eranthis , an angiosperm genus with poor seed dispersal ability and a discontinuous distribution across Eurasia, to shed light on the orogenesis of the Qinghai–Tibetan, Iranian and Mongolian Plateaus. Our phylogenetic analyses show that Eranthis comprises four major geographical clades: east Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau clade (I-1), North Asian clade (I-2), west Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau clade (II-1) and Mediterranean clade (II-2). Our molecular dating and biogeographic analyses indicate that within Eranthis , four vicariance events correlate well with the two early uplifts of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau during the Late Eocene and the Oligocene–Miocene boundary and the two uplifts of the Iranian Plateau during the Middle and Late Miocene. The origin and divergence of the Mongolian Plateau taxa are related to the two uplifts of the Mongolian Plateau during the Middle and Late Miocene. Additionally, our results are in agreement with the hypothesis that the central part of Tibet only reached an altitude of less than 2.3 km at approximately 40 Ma. This study highlights that organismal evolution could be related to the formation of the three great Asian plateaus, hence contributing to the knowledge on the timing of the key tectonic events in Asia.