Biogeography of the Caribbean Clades of Pitcairnia L’Her. and Wittmackia Mez (Bromeliaceae Juss.)

Wittmackia and Pitcairnia exhibit a disproportionate level of endemism in the Caribbean islands compared to the rest of the Bromeliaceae family. With genomics and transcriptomic tools, I explore the biogeographic history of the Caribbean clades of each genus. In both cases migration is hypothesized to have taken place from South America; for Wittmackia, the closes relatives occur in Brazil and for Pitcairnia they are in Venezuela. A rapid burst of diversification took place in Jamaica that resulted in 13 different species of Wittmackia, of the 17 that are present in this clade. Incomplete lineage sorting is evidenced by high levels of gene tree – species tree conflict and low levels of hybridization. In Pitcairnia we find a pattern of island hopping through the Lesser Antilles island arc. I found that the diversity of Pitcairnia to be overestimated in the region and propose the species in the Island of Ayiti (Hispaniola) be synonymized with P. fuertesii, and P. jareckii with P. angustifolia.