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Afromontane forests host a unique biodiversity distributed in isolated high-elevation habitats within a matrix of rain forests or savannahs, yet they share a remarkable flora that raises questions about past connectivity between currently isolated forests. Here, we focused on the Podocarpus latifolius–P. milanjianus complex (Podocarpaceae), the most widely distributed conifers throughout sub-Saharan African highlands, to infer its demographic history from genetic data.

We sequenced the whole plastid genome, mitochondrial DNA regions and nuclear ribosomal DNA of 88 samples from Cameroon to Angola in western Central Africa and from Kenya to the Cape region in eastern and southern Africa to reconstruct time-calibrated phylogenies and perform demographic inferences.

We show that P. latifolius and P …