MORPH
An NSF Research Coordination Network
Research Interests
I study the systematic patterns of morphological variation as a way to understand the interplay between development and evolution that leads to phenotypic evolution in plants. I use a two-pronged approach to do this (1) phylogenetic analyses to assess evolutionary relationships among taxonomic groups, and (2) analysis of characters, within such a phylogenetic framework, to uncover systematic patterns of variation ("identifying the phylogenetic statement," to paraphrase Alec Panchen). The taxonomic scope of my work includes the monocotyledons and sister taxa; phylogenetic studies use molecular and morphological data.
I have studied developmental and evolutionary patterns of variation in characters at different levels of organization: morphological (leaf development), cellular (reproductive development), genomic (nuclear DNA amount), and molecular (knox, a homeobox multigene family). Current research includes evolutionary studies of Dioscorea, the true yams, and compound leaf and reproductive development in angiosperms.
