Comparative Analysis of Diversification Rates in Clonal and Non-Clonal Flowering Plants

Abstract

Clonality, the process of vegetative reproduction through belowground organs (rhizomes, stolons), occurs in about half of all plant species. It influences key ecological and evolutionary phenomena, including effective population size, meiosis frequency and genet longevity, which may affect diversification rates. This study investigates how clonality impacts diversification in angiosperms by comparing clonal, mixed and non-clonal genera. Using genus-level phylogeny and data on clonal status of 16,465 species across 2997 genera, we estimated speciation and net diversification rates for each genus with MoM, DR and BAMM. Our results reveal lower diversification rates in clonal genera in non-phylogenetic models, consistent with the hypothesis that clonality constrains diversification. This effect weakens when accounting for phylogenetic non-independence but remains significant overall. We show that monocots show a slightly stronger effect of clonality on diversification than eudicots. Our findings suggest that clonality may limit long-term diversification in angiosperms, influencing evolutionary dynamics where clonal reproduction predominates.