The Macaronesian laurel forests (MLF) are dominated by trees with a laurophyll habit comparable to evergreen humid forests which were scattered across Europe and the Mediterranean in the Paleogene and Neogene. Therefore, MLF are traditionally regarded as an old, 'Tertiary relict' vegetation type. Here we address the question if key taxa of the MLF are relictual. We evaluated the relict hypothesis consulting fossil data and analyses based on molecular phylogenies of 18 representative species. For molecular dating we used the program BEAST, for ancestral trait reconstructions BayesTraits and Lagrange to infer ancestral areas. Our molecular dating showed that the origins of four species date back to the Upper Miocene while 14 originated in the Plio-Pleistocene. This coincides with the decline of fossil laurophyllous elements in Europe since the middle Miocene. Ancestral trait and area reconstructions indicate that MLF evolved partly from pre-adapted taxa from the Mediterranean, Macaronesia and the tropics. According to the fossil record laurophyllous taxa existed in Macaronesia since the Plio- and Pleistocene. MLF are composed of species with a heterogeneous origin. The taxa dated to the Pleistocene are likely not 'Tertiary relicts'. Some species may be interpreted as relictual. In this case, the establishment of most species in the Plio-Pleistocene suggests that there was a massive species turnover before this time. Alternatively, MLF were largely newly assembled through global recruitment rather than surviving as relicts of a once more widespread vegetation. This process may have possibly been triggered by the intensification of the trade winds at the end of the Pliocene as indicated by proxy data.

Evolution of C3–C4 intermediate and C4 lineages are resolved in Salsoleae (Chenopodiaceae), and a model for structural and biochemical changes for the evolution of the Salsoloid form of C4 is considered.

Urticaceae tribe Parietarieae serves as an excellent example to study hypotheses on Macaronesian‐​Mediterranean island biogeography. Parietarieae is distributed in both of these floristically closely related regions and contains two island endemic genera. Gesnouinia is endemic to Macaronesia and was considered a Tertiary relict from a European paleotropical vegetation. This, however, may contradict the general idea of insular woodiness also proposed for this genus. For the origin of the western Mediterranean island endemic Soleirolia, a vicariance scenario, i.e., the split of the Hercynian massif in southern Europe has been suggested. To evaluate these hypotheses and to provide a time frame for island and inter‐island colonization, we applied molecular phylogenetics and dating based on two plastid and one nuclear DNA marker. Additionally, we performed ancestral area reconstruction, analyzed the anatomy of the stem and reconstructed the ancestral character states of woodiness. Our results indicate that Gesnouinia colonized Macaronesia during the Miocene via long‐distance dispersal and may, therefore, be a Tertiary laurel forest relict. Diversification between the laurel forest species Gesnouinia arborea and the rupicolous and more xeric G. filamentosa occurred within Macaronesia during the Pleistocene, possibly due to climate fluctuations. Therefore, G. arborea is not a relict from the Tertiary. Stem anatomy suggests that although woodiness in Gesnouinia likely is derived, it may have evolved prior to island colonization. Soleirolia originated in the Mediterranean during the Miocene. This rules out vicariance from the split of the Hercynian massif in southern Europe during the Oligocene. The divergence of Soleirolia from Majorca, Corsica, Sardinia and the Italian mainland dates to the Pleistocene. This indicates long‐distance dispersal as predominant colonization mode, not ruling out that migration between these areas was possibly facilitated by land bridges during the Pleistocene glaciation cycles.