pycnophylla in order to identify their main changes during the last 14 000 years. We used the Elliptic Fourier Descriptors (leaf shape) and traditional leaf morphometry (leaf size) of 347 leaves to measure inter and intra-population variation and a comparison between a paleogeographic reconstruction with an actual estimate of the distribution areas of E. We boarded the hypothesis that three populations of Espeletia pycnophylla show phenotypic divergence as one of the possible implications of their geographic isolation in the Southern Colombian Andes.
The phenotypic structure within and between plant populations is generally influenced by their distribution patterns in space and time therefore, the study of their divergence is a central issue for the understanding of their microevolutive processes.
