Afromontane and Afroalpine archipelagos: unravelling the drivers of diversification and biogeographic connections of two species rich Compositae radiations

This project seeks to investigate the temporal and geographic origins of the Afromontane and Afroalpine species of the genus Helichrysum Mill. (Compositae, Gnaphalieae) and the Carduus-Cirsium complex (Compositae, Cardueae), as well as the main drivers of their diversification in the region. This requires the reconstruction of taxonomically well-sampled and well-resolved phylogenies and the application of complex bioinformatic analyses aimed to infer the temporal origin of the studied group, its biogeographic history, the evolution of morphological and ecological traits, and the potential impact of those traits in diversification rates.