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Aim: Phenotypes promoting dispersal over ecological timescales may have macroevolutionary consequences, such as long‐distance dispersal and diversification. However, whether dispersal traits explain the distribution of pantropical plant groups remains unclear. Here we reconstruct the biogeographical history of a tree clade to assess whether seed dispersal traits and biome‐switching explain the clade's pantropical distribution. Location: Pantropical. Taxon: The Pterocarpus clade (Leguminosae/Fabaceae). Methods: We sequenced 303 nuclear loci using target capture and generated a time‐calibrated phylogenomic tree. We also generated a corroborative time‐calibrated phylogenetic tree from data‐mined Sanger‐sequencing data. We then collated distribution data and seed dispersal morphology traits to compare trait‐dependent and trait‐independent biogeographical models, allowing us to infer whether dispersal traits influenced Pterocarpus' spatio‐temporal evolution. Finally, using the results of these model tests, we estimated the ancestral ranges and biomes of Pterocarpus species to better understand their biogeographical history, and assessed the degree and direction of biome‐switching over the course of their diversification. Results: We recovered well‐supported phylogenetic relationships within Pterocarpus, within which there were two subclades – one neotropical and the other palaeotropical. Our divergence date estimates suggested that Pterocarpus diversified from around 12 Ma, during the Miocene. Trait‐dependent biogeographical models were rejected for both range and biome evolution within Pterocarpus, but models including dispersal were supported. Pterocarpus' ancestral node shared a range across the new‐world and old‐world tropics, followed by divergence into palaeotropical and neotropical clades. Biome‐switching occurred most frequently into rainforest and grassland. Main conclusions: Our analyses suggest that Pterocarpus underwent infrequent cross‐continental dispersal and establishment into novel biomes. While this was minimally impacted by seed dispersal traits, biome‐switching following long‐distance dispersal and climate change have played an important role in diversification within Pterocarpus since the Miocene. Indeed, rare events of long‐distance dispersal likely explain the wide distributions of many pantropical plant species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dalbergia odorifera T. C. Chen (Leguminosae), a rare and endangered tree species endemic to Hainan Island of China, produces the most expensive and rarest wood in China. The wood characteristics of D. odorifera are remarkably similar to those of D. tonkinensis (a much less sought‐after species from Vietnam), and the DNA from wood is often highly degraded, making it very difficult to identify the two species using anatomical features or DNA barcoding based on regular DNA markers. To solve the confusion of identifying wood reliably from the two species, we built and analyzed the plastome library of 26 samples from 18 Dalbergia species, of which 12 samples from eight closely related species of D. odorifera are newly sequenced in this study. Phylogenomic analysis suggested that the relationships among the 26 samples are mostly well resolved, and conspecific individuals from different populations of D. odorifera and D. tonkinensis clustered together. Between the plastid genomes of the two species, we identified 129 indels and 114 single nucleotide polymorphisms. By assessing a subset of 20 nucleotide polymorphisms and 10 indels using 37 population‐level samples (20 samples of D. odorifera and 17 samples of D. tonkinensis), we recovered eight species‐specific barcode regions that could be suitable for identifying the wood D. odorifera and D. tonkinensis. To examine their utility in wood identification, we amplified the eight DNA barcodes using six wood samples and recovered an amplification success rate of 83.3%, demonstrating a reliable method for precise wood identification of the two species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plants are under‐represented in conservation efforts, with only 9% of described species published on the IUCN Red List. Biodiversity aggregators including the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and the more recent Botanical Information and Ecology Network (BIEN) contain a wealth of potentially useful occurrence data. We investigate the influence of these data in accelerating plant extinction risk assessments for 225 endemic, near‐endemic, and socioeconomic Bolivian plant species. Geo‐referenced herbarium voucher specimens verified by taxonomic experts comprised our control data set. Open‐source data for 77 species was subjected to a two‐stage cleaning protocol (using an automated R package followed by a manual clean) and threat categories were computed based on extent of occurrence thresholds. Accuracy was the highest using cleaned GBIF data (76%) and uncleaned BIEN data (79%). Sensitivity was the highest for cleaned GBIF (73%) and BIEN (80%) data suggesting our cleaning protocol was essential to maximize sensitivity rates. Comparisons between the control, GBIF and BIEN data sets revealed a paucity of occurrence data for 148 species (66%), 72% of which qualified for a threatened category. Balancing data quantity and accuracy must be considered when using open‐source data. Filling data gaps for threatened species is a conservation priority to improve the coverage of threatened species within biodiversity aggregators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Societal Impact Statement: A wide variety of plant species are threatened by illegal wildlife trade (IWT), and yet plants receive scant attention in IWT policy and research, a matter of pressing global concern. This review examines how "plant blindness" manifests within policy and research on IWT, with serious and detrimental effects for biodiversity conservation. We suggest several key points: (a) perhaps with the exception of the illegal timber market, plants are overlooked in IWT policy and research; (b) there is insufficient attention from funding agencies to the presence and persistence of illegal trade in plants; and (c) these absences are at least in part resultant from plant blindness as codified in governmental laws defining the meaning of "wildlife." Summary This review investigates the ways in which "plant blindness," first described by Wandersee and Schussler (1999, p. 82) as "the misguided anthropocentric ranking of plants as inferior to animals," intersects with the contemporary boom in research and policy on illegal wildlife trade (IWT). We argue that plants have been largely ignored within this emerging conservation arena, with serious and detrimental effects for biodiversity conservation. With the exception of the illegal trade in timber, we show that plants are absent from much emerging scholarship, and receive scant attention by US and UK funding agencies often driving global efforts to address illegal wildlife trade, despite the high levels of threat many plants face. Our article concludes by discussing current challenges posed by plant blindness in IWT policy and research, but also suggests reasons for cautious optimism in addressing this critical issue for plant conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]