Historical biogeography of Caribbean plants: introduction to current know- ledge and possibilities from a phylogenetic perspective

For years, studies on the classification, evolution and geographic history of the Caribbean biota have ignited much interest, resulting in many studies addressing issues in a variety of contexts. Most of the works on biogeography of the region are predominantly on animal groups, and there is a marked deficiency in similar studies for plant groups. For instance, in the proceedings of a symposium (Morin, 1982) emphasizing the phytogeography of Central America, in which issues about the Caribbean islands were addressed, two of the most relevant contributions (Humphries, 1982; Savage, 1982) discussed only vertebrate groups. One of the authors (Humphries, 1982) acknowledged that the number of plant studies then available were very scarce, and because of the lack of phylogenies were unsuitable to apply in his cladistic methods. A synthetic compilation on West Indian Biogeography (Woods, 1989) includes 32 works on paleontology, anthropology, ichthyology, entomology, ornithology, herpetology, and conservation biology. In these proceedings, the editor emphasized that “...having reviewed much of the available data on West Indian biogeography, I have been struck by how few studies on plants and invertebrates there are in the overall body of data on West Indian biogeography compared with the information available on other groups” (Woods, 1989). Those “other groups” mentioned by Woods are primarily vertebrates, which at that time formed the predominant body of information for interpreting the biological history of the West Indies. In that symposium, only one of the 50 contributors (Adams, 1989) addressed ideas on the geographic origin and evolution of a plant group (Juniperus). A second contribution (Woods & Sergile, 2001) includes only one biogeographical study (Judd, 2001) of a Caribbean plant group (Lyonia sect. Lyonia). This disparity between knowledge on the evolution and biogeography of plants relative to animals is a prime indication that our ideas on the history of the Caribbean biota have been erected almost exclusively from faunal data.