Subgenus Prunus: Saccharine Snack of Savannastan

“Our results indicate that the modern genus appeared ∼61 Myr in eastern Asia and that diversification of all major lineages may have been triggered by the global warming period of the early Eocene. In addition, our molecular dating estimates suggest that the crown clade that includes the temperate deciduous crop species is older than the one that includes the tropical evergreen species, while incongruence between plastid and nuclear phylogenies suggests that the latter lineage originated via an ancient hybridization event. The most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of the temperate crop species was a component of the continuous boreotropical forests of the Northern Hemisphere, while the MRCA of the tropical species represented the last remains of the boreotropical elements and subsequently radiated throughout the Old and New World tropics from refugial areas at lower latitudes. Complex biogeographic histories leading to the present global distribution of the genus were driven by several geologic events, climatic oscillations, and independent dispersals across continents via the Bering and the North Atlantic Land Bridges during different geologic time periods.”

DON’T FORGET P. EREMOPHILA, P. HARVARDII!

Some Eurasian climate analogs for the Inland Northwest, West to East:

-Alps
-Balkans
-Carpathians
-Ukraine
-Caucasus
-Zagros
-Kazakhstan
-Hindu Kush
-Tien Shan
-Altai
-Tarim
-Tibet
-Khingan steppe
-Mandshuria
-North Korea