Diverse specialised metabolites contributed to the success of vascular plants in colonising most terrestrial habitats. Understanding how distinct aspects of chemical diversity arise through heterogeneous environmental pressures can help us understand the effects of abiotic and biotic stress on plant evolution and community assembly. We examined highland and lowland willow species within a phylogenetic framework to test for trends in their chemical α-diversity (richness) and β-diversity (variation among species sympatric in elevation). We show that differences in chemistry among willows growing at different elevations occur mainly through shifts in chemical β-diversity and due to convergence or divergence among species sharing their elevation level. We also detect contrasting phylogenetic trends in concentration and α-diversity of metabolites in highland and lowland willow species. The resulting elevational patterns contribute to the chemical diversity of willows and suggest that variable selective pressure across ecological gradients may, more generally, underpin complex changes in plant chemistry.

Agriculture and Environment Department Harper Adams University Newport UK

Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic

Department of Biology Aarhus University Aarhus Denmark

Department of Integrative Biology University of Texas at Austin Austin Texas USA

Department of Systematics Biodiversity and Evolution of Plants University of Goettingen Göttingen Germany

Faculty of Science University of South Bohemia Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic

Natural Chemistry Research Group Department of Chemistry University of Turku Turku Finland

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Ancón Panama

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