The Andes through time: evolution and distribution of Andean floras

The Andes are the world's most biodiverse mountain chain, encompassing a complex array of ecosystems from tropical rainforests to alpine habitats. We pro-vide a synthesis of Andean vascular plant diversity by estimating a list of all spe-cies with publicly available records, which we integrate with a phylogenetic dataset of 14 501 Neotropical plant species in 194 clades. We find that (i) the An-dean flora comprises at least 28 691 georeferenced species documented to date, (ii) Northern Andean mid-elevation cloud forests are the most species-rich An-dean ecosystems, (iii) the Andes are a key source and sink of Neotropical plant diversity, and (iv) the Andes, Amazonia, and other Neotropical biomes have had a considerable amount of biotic interchange through time.

Automated summary

This study provides a synthesis of the vascular plant diversity in the Andes and reveals that the Northern Andean mid-elevation cloud forests are the most species-rich ecosystems. The Andes play a crucial role as a source and sink of Neotropical plant diversity, and there have been significant biotic interchanges between the Andes, Amazonia, and other Neotropical biomes throughout history.