Data from: Lagging adaptation to climate change supersedes local adaptation to herbivory in an annual monkeyflower

While native populations are often adapted to historical biotic and abiotic conditions at their home site, populations from other locations in the range may be better adapted to current conditions due to changing climates. We examine whether native populations of a widespread species have maintained relative advantage over distant populations that have evolved at sites better matching the current climate. Specifically, we grew lines derived from low and high elevation annual populations in California and Oregon of the common monkeyflower (Erythranthe guttata), and conducted phenotypic selection analyses in low and high elevation common gardens in Oregon to examine relative fitness and the traits mediating relative fitness. Californian low elevation populations have the highest relative fitness in the low elevation site and Californian high elevation populations have the highest relative fitness in the high elevation site. Relative fitness differences are mediated by selection for properly timed transitions to flowering with selection favoring more rapid growth rates at the low elevation site and greater vegetative biomass prior to flowering at the high elevation site. Fitness advantages for Californian plants occur despite incurring higher herbivory at both sites than the native Oregonian plants. Our findings suggest a lag in adaptation to changing climates exists, but high levels of range-wide genetic variation could facilitate future evolutionary rescue.