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MACROEVOLUTION

Useful plants have deep evolutionary roots

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 5, pages 558–559 (2021)Cite this article

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It has long been asserted that samples of taxa that span more of the Tree of Life contain more features that humans find useful. This has now been tested at a global scale: across 13,500 plant genera and nearly 9,500 uses, the prediction holds, supporting a macroevolutionary perspective on biodiversity conservation.

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Fig. 1: How maximizing evolutionary history captures more uses.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Arne Mooers, Caroline M. Tucker.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

    Arne Mooers

  2. Environment, Ecology and Energy Program, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Caroline M. Tucker

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  1. Arne Mooers
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  2. Caroline M. Tucker
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Correspondence to Arne Mooers or Caroline M. Tucker.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Mooers, A., Tucker, C.M. Useful plants have deep evolutionary roots. Nat Ecol Evol 5, 558–559 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01438-8

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