Polyploidy, the condition where an organism possesses more than two complete sets of chromosomes in each nucleus, presents a fascinating problem for plant evolutionary biologists. On the one hand, polyploidy in plants is often regarded as an evolutionary dead end, while on the other hand, evolutionary genomics research has shown that virtually all extant plants are derived from ancient polyploid ancestors, suggesting a long term evolutionary advantage. This enigma is further exacerbated by the observation that the abundance of recent polyploids greatly exceeds the number of inferred ancient polyploidy events. Why, if polyploidy is so common in extant populations, do we observe such a limited amount of established polyploidy events along the phylogeny? Interestingly, recent discoveries have shown that many of these ancient polyploidy events have taken place during periods of severe environmental upheaval. This leads naturally to the question whether environmental change could have enhanced short term polyploid establishment, such that otherwise unlikely survivals took place. Increased short term establishment however does not explain the long term evolutionary success of these polyploid lineages. Which adaptive and neutral processes have taken place after polyploidization? How could these have resulted in the macroevolutionary dominance of ancient polyploids? In this research we will tackle both the problem of short and long term establishment of polyploidy in plants.