Suturing fragmented landscapes: Mosaic hybrid zones in plants may facilitate ecosystem resiliency.

ABSTRACT: Many widespread plant taxa of western North America have diversified into phenotypically and genetically divergent lineages due to complex biogeographic histories across heterogeneous landscapes. Mosaic hybrid zones can form when geographically co-occurring, yet environmentally distinct, lineages cross-pollinate and form hybrids that occupy unique environmental niches absent of a geographic cline. This expands the total environmental space across which parental and hybrid individuals grow, resulting in larger, less fragmented geographic distributions. Here, we highlight hybridization mosaics across three study systems containing taxa critical to widespread plant communities in western North America: Ericameria nauseosa, Artemisia tridentata, and Sphaeralcea fendleri. T

SUBMITTER: Massatti R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12337288 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature