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Background and Aims Modern tropical rainforests house the highest biodiversity of Earth's terrestrial biomes and are distributed in three low-latitude areas. However, the biogeographical patterns and processes underlying the distribution of biodiversity among these three areas are still poorly known. Here, we used Tiliacoreae, a tribe of pantropical lianas with a high level of regional endemism, to provide new insights into the biogeographical relationships of tropical rainforests among different continents. Methods Based on seven plastid and two nuclear DNA regions, we reconstructed a phylogeny for Tiliacoreae with the most comprehensive sampling ever. Within the phylogenetic framework, we then estimated divergence times and investigated the spatiotemporal evolution of the tribe. Key Results The monophyletic Tiliacoreae contain three major clades, which correspond to Neotropical, Afrotropical and Indo-Malesian/Australasian areas, respectively. Both Albertisia and Anisocycla are not monophyletic. The most recent common ancestor of Tiliacoreae occurred in Indo-Malesia, the Afrotropics and Neotropics in the early Eocene, then rapidly diverged into three major clades between 48 and 46 Ma. Three dispersals from Indo-Malesia to Australasia were inferred, one in the middle Eocene and two in the late Oligocene–late Miocene, and two dispersals from the Afrotropics to Indo-Malesia occurred in the late Eocene–Oligocene. Conclusions The three main clades of Anisocycla correspond to three distinct genera [i.e. Anisocycla sensu stricto and two new genera (Georgesia and Macrophragma)]. Epinetrum is a member of Albertisia. Our findings highlight that sea-level fluctuations and climate changes in the Cenozoic have played important roles in shaping the current distribution and endemism of Tiliacoreae, hence contributing to the knowledge on the historical biogeography of tropical rainforests on a global scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Phylogeny of Pachygoneae was built based on six plastid and nuclear loci. • We resurrected Cebatha and Nephroia and reduced Cocculus laurifolius to Pachygone. • Pachygoneae dispersed into the New World from Asia in the late Eocene. • Successive origins of the American lineages supported the boreotropical flora hypothesis. • A geodispersal from Asia to Australasia occurred in the early to late Miocene. The tribe Pachygoneae consists of four genera with about 40 species, primarily distributed in tropical and subtropical Asia and America, also in Australasia and Africa. This tribe presents an ideal model to investigate the origin of the tropical and subtropical amphi-Pacific disjunction pattern. More specifically, it allows us to test whether the tropical lineages diverged earlier than the subtropical ones during the fragmentation of the boreotropical flora. In this study, we reconstructed the phylogeny of Pachygoneae using five plastid (rbc L, atp B, mat K, ndh F, trn L-F) and one nuclear (26S rDNA) DNA regions. Our results indicate that Pachygoneae is not monophyletic unless Cocculus pendulus and Cocculus balfourii are excluded. We resurrected the genus Cebatha to include these two species and established a new tribe for this genus. Within Pachygoneae, the species of Cocculus are distributed in three different clades, among which two are recognized as two distinct genera, Cocculus s.str. and Nephroia resurrected, and one species is transferred into Pachygone. Our molecular dating and ancestral area reconstruction analyses suggest that Pachygoneae began to diversify in tropical Asia around the early-middle Eocene boundary (c. 48 Ma) and expanded into the New World by c. 44 Ma. In the New World, tropical Hyperbaena originated in the late Eocene (c. 40 Ma), whereas the subtropical Cocculus carolinus and Cocculus diversifolius originated later, in the early Oligocene (c. 32 Ma). These two timings correspond with the two climatic cooling intervals, which suggests that the formation and breakup of the boreotropical floral may have been responsible for the amphi-Pacific disjunct distribution within Pachygoneae. One overland migration event from Asia into Australasia appears to have occurred in the early to late Miocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]