Background Saussurea is one of the most species-rich genera in the Cardueae, Asteraceae. There are approximately 40 Saussurea species distributed in Korea, with nearly 40% of them endemics. Infrageneric relationships remain uncertain due to insufficient resolutions and low statistical support. In this study, we sequenced the plastid genomes of five Korean endemic Saussurea (S. albifolia, S. calcicola, S. diamantica, S. grandicapitula, and S. seoulensis), and comparative analyses including two other endemics (S. chabyoungsanica and S. polylepis) were conducted. Results The plastomes of Korean endemics were highly conserved in gene content, order, and numbers. Exceptionally, S. diamantica had mitochondrial DNA sequences including two tRNAs in SSC region. There were no significant differences of the type and numbers of SSRs among the seven Korean endemics except in S. seoulensis. Nine mutation hotspots with high nucleotide diversity value (Pi > 0.0033) were identified, and phylogenetic analysis suggested that those Korean endemic species most likely evolved several times from diverse lineages within the genus. Moreover, molecular dating estimated that the Korean endemic species diverged since the late Miocene. Conclusions This study provides insight into understanding the plastome evolution and evolutionary relationships of highly complex species of Saussurea in Korean peninsula.

Asplenium scolopendrium is distributed in northern temperate forests with many global biogeographic disjunctions. The species complex of A. scolopendrium has been generated by spatial segregation coupled with divergent evolution. We elucidated the biogeographic history of the A. scolopendrium complex by exploring its origin, dispersal and evolution, thus providing insights into the evolutionary history of the Tertiary floras with northern pan-temperate disjunct distributions. The results revealed that all infraspecific taxa descended from a widely distributed common ancestor in the Northern Hemisphere. This pan-temperate ancestral population formed by unidirectional westward dispersal from European origins primarily during the Early Eocene when the Earth’s climate was much warmer than today. The splitting of European, American and East Asian lineages occurred during the Early Miocene due to geo-climatic vicariances. Polyploidy events in the American ancestral populations created additional reproductive barriers. The star-shaped haplotypes in each continent indicated that local disjunctions also led to derived genotypes with potential to diverge into different taxa. This intracontinental lineage splitting is likely related to latitudinal range shift and habitat fragmentation caused by glacial cycles and climate change during the Pleistocene. The evolutionary history of the A. scolopendrium complex supported the Boreotropical hypothesis exhibiting range expansion during the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum.