Data from: Natural selection drives leaf divergence in experimental populations of Senecio lautus under natural conditions

• Leaf morphology is highly variable both within and between plant
species. This study employs a combination of common garden and reciprocal
transplant experiments to determine whether leaf shape in Senecio lautus
has evolved as an adaptive response to divergent natural selection. • We
created a synthetic population of hybrid genotypes to segregate
morphological variation between three ecotypes, and performed reciprocal
transplants where this hybrid population was transplanted into the three
adjacent native environments. We measured 9 leaf morphology traits across
the experimental an natural populations at these sites . • We found
significant divergence in multivariate leaf morphology toward the native
character in each environment, suggesting environmental conditions at each
site exert selective pressure that results in a phenotypic shift towards
the local phenotype of the wild populations.• These associations suggest
that differences in leaf morphology between S. lautus ecotypes has arisen
as a result of divergent selection on leaf shape or associated traits that
confer an adaptive advantage in each environment, which has led to the
formation of morphologically distinct ecotypes.