Nuclear phylogeography of the temperate tree species Chiranthodendron pentadactylon (Malvaceae): Quaternary relicts in Mesoamerican cloud forests

Background The Mexican hand tree or Canac ( Chiranthodendron pentadactylon ) is a temperate tree species of cloud and pine-oak forests of southern Mexico and Guatemala. Its characteristic hand-shaped flower is used in folk medicine and has constituted the iconic symbol of the Sociedad Botánica de México since 1940. Here, the evolutionary history of this species was estimated through phylogeographic analyses of nuclear DNA sequences obtained...