Data from: Reticulate evolution helps explain apparent homoplasy in floral biology and pollination in baobabs (Adansonia; Bombacoideae; Malvaceae)

Baobabs (Adansonia) are a cohesive group of tropical trees with a disjunct
distribution in Australia, Madagascar, and continental Africa, and diverse
flowers associated with two pollination modes. We used custom targeted
sequence capture in conjunction with new and existing phylogenetic
comparative methods to explore the evolution of floral traits and
pollination systems while allowing for reticulate evolution. Our analyses
suggest that relationships in Adansonia are confounded by reticulation,
with network inference methods supporting at least one reticulation event.
The best supported hypothesis involves introgression between A. rubrostipa
and core Longitubae, both of which are hawkmoth pollinated with yellow/red
flowers, but there is also some support for introgression between the
African lineage and Malagasy Brevitubae, which are both mammal-pollinated
with white flowers. New comparative methods for phylogenetic networks were
developed that allow maximum-likelihood inference of ancestral states and
applied to study the apparent homoplasy in floral biology and pollination
mode seen in Adansonia. This analysis supports a role for introgressive
hybridization in morphological evolution even in a clade with highly
divergent and geographically widespread species. Our new comparative
methods for discrete traits on species networks are implemented in the
software PhyloNetworks.