Unexpected diversity and evolutionary lability in root architectural ecomorphs in the rushes of the hyperdiverse Cape flora

Summary Plants use roots to access soil resources, so differences in root traits and their ecological consequences could be a mechanism of species coexistence and niche divergence. Current views of the evolution of root diversity are informed by large‐scale evolutionary analyses based on taxonomically coarse sampling and led to the ‘root trait phylogenetic conservatism hypothesis’. Here we test this hypothesised conservatism among closely...