A comprehensive genus-level phylogeny and biogeographical history of the Lythraceae based on whole plastome sequences.

We hypothesize that the Lythraceae dispersed by the early Upper Cretaceous from South American to North American continents, with subsequent expansion in the Upper Cretaceous of a North American lineage through Laurasia to Africa via a boreotropical route. Two later expansions of South American clades to Africa in the Paleocene and Eocene, respectively, are also hypothesised. Transoceanic dispersal in the family is possibly facilitated by adaptations to aquatic environments that are common to many extant genera of the Lythraceae, where long-distance dispersal and vicariance may be invoked to explain several remarkable disjunct distributions in Lythraceae clades.