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It is recommended that Vellozia hirsuta be considered a single enormously variable species. The patterns of variation within V. hirsuta probably are related to climatic changes that occurred during the Pleistocene Epoch in tropical Brazil when reductions in forest cover favored the expansion of V. hirsuta populations into extensive lowland areas. The expansion of forest cover at the end of the glaciations would have again restricted the occurrence of campos rupestres vegetation to high elevations, which constitute the current centers of diversity of this species.

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The campo rupestre is a Neotropical azonal vegetation. Its disjoint distribution and the fact that it is an old climatic buffered infertile landscape (OCBIL) have been associated with the high diversity and endemism observed in this environment. Here, we tested whether a micro-endemic species from campo rupestre shows: (1) limited zygotic gene flow; (2) lower gametic than zygotic gene flow structure; (3) substrate-driven genetic structure and (4) no evidence of Pleistocene local extinction or recolonization. By sequencing intergenic plastid regions, phenotyping inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR) and modelling present and past species suitability distributions for Vellozia auriculata we conclude that (1) zygotic gene flow is limited; (2) gametic gene flow is recurrent, but limited by elevation and distance; (3) there is no support for genetic structure driven by substrate and (4) Pleistocene climatic changes did not restrict the species to refugia, with local persistence. As long-term gene flow restrictions may lead to differentiation and speciation, our data helps to corroborate that the campo rupestre is both a cradle (due to low zygotic gene flow, prolonged isolation and consequent differentiation) and a lineage museum (due to local survival during climate oscillations). We highlight two distinct evolutionarily significant units (ESU), providing information for better conservation practice.

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