Plants and Society 7th Edition by Estelle Levetin ,Karen McMahon

Exercise 1

The sweet potato is said to have a disjunct distribution, found in two widely separated regions of the world. Species with disjunct populations have been of great interest to phytogeographers, scientists who study and attempt to explain the distribution patterns of plants. For example, plant species with disjunct distributions in Africa and South America have been used as evidence to support the theory that these continents were once part of a single landmass that later moved apart as a result of continental drift.
If you were to find a plant species with widely separated populations, what hypotheses could you come up with to account for the distribution How would you investigate your hypotheses