Last week a major research paper on the evolution of flowering plants was published. It was prepared by a global team of 279 authors, lead by the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, UK. The following botanists from the State Herbarium of South Australia and The University of Adelaide were also involved in the project: Michelle Walcott (SA Team leader), Ed Biffin, Ainsley Calladine, John Conran, Kor-jent van Dijk, Andrew McDougall, Francis Nge (now National Herbarium of New South Wales), Andrew Thornhill (now University of New England), Helen Vonow and Luis Williamson. All collaborators have been actively involved in providing samples, contributing to analysis, interpretation, paper conceptualisation and/or writing.

A.R. Zuntini et al. (2024). Phylogenomics and the rise of the angiosperms. Nature [published online before print], 8 pp. and Electronic Supplement. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07324-0

The new phylogeny of flowering plants can be viewed, explored and searched at the Kew Tree of Life Explorer website. The paper and website represent a massive step-change in a baseline for phylogenetic data being used in understanding the evolution of angiosperms.

Time-calibrated phylogenetic tree for angiosperms based on 353 nuclear genes. All 64 orders, all 416 families and 58% (7,923) of genera are represented.