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One of the major trends in angiosperm evolution was the shift from woody to herbaceous habit. However, reversals known as derived woodiness have also been reported in numerous, distantly related clades. Among theories evoked to explain the factors promoting the evolution of derived woodiness are moderate climate theory and cavitation theory. The first assumes that woody habit evolves in response to mild climate allowing for prolonged life span, which in turn leads to bigger and woodier bodies. The second sees woodiness as a result of natural selection for higher cavitation resistance in seasonally dry environments. Here, we compare climatic niches of woody and herbaceous, mostly southern African, umbellifers from the Lefebvrea clade to assess whether woody taxa in fact occur in markedly drier habitats. We also calibrate their phylogeny to estimate when derived …