Exploring and characterizing plant diversity and diversification
Our research asks how plant lineages vary in space and time, how we can name and classify them, how they evolve, and how botanical knowledge can support human and ecological functioning.
Integrative plant systematics
We combine field collections, herbarium study, morphology, phylogenomics, population genomics, spectral phenomics, and comparative methods to study plant lineages and their evolutionary histories.
ErythroxylaceaeCoca and its relativesSpecies delimitation, domestication, adaptation, biogeography, and botanical knowledge relevant to policy.
Work in Erythroxylaceae integrates genomics, herbarium specimens, leaf morphology, chemistry, ethnobotany, and fieldwork to understand the origins and diversity of cultivated coca and its wild relatives.
DryasArctic-alpine diversificationSpecies delimitation, phylogeography, hybridization, and Pleistocene climate history.
Dryas provides a system for studying how climate oscillations structure geographic, phenotypic, and genomic variation in arctic-alpine plants.
PoaceaeNorth American grassesCollections-based phylogeography, spectral phenomics, traits, climate, soils, and disturbance gradients.
The S.M. Tracy Herbarium's unequaled grass collections create an opportunity to study diversification and adaptation across North American grassland ecoregions.
Collections innovation
Herbaria are not simply archives. They are research infrastructure for synthesizing biodiversity data across time, space, and lineages.
Spectral phenomicsReflectance spectra from herbarium specimensHigh-throughput, non-destructive information about taxonomy, traits, and plant function.
We develop and apply spectral workflows that link preserved plant tissues to functional traits, taxonomic models, and extended-specimen data systems.
IHerbSpecCommunity standards for herbarium spectral dataMeasurement protocols, metadata, controlled vocabularies, and FAIR data publication.
The lab contributes to international efforts to standardize spectral measurement and metadata workflows so that herbarium spectra can be shared, compared, and reused.
Floristics and conservation
Conservation begins with knowing what exists, where it occurs, and how it is changing.
CentinelaBotany-based conservation in western EcuadorFloristic inventories, threatened species assessments, restoration, and conservation partnerships.
Ongoing work in western Ecuador uses field surveys, herbarium vouchers, taxonomic synthesis, ex situ collections, and restoration to support conservation of threatened forest fragments.
Texas floraRegional plant diversity and stewardshipFilling collection gaps, refreshing historical records, and connecting collections to conservation and education.
At Texas A&M, the lab will work with the S.M. Tracy Herbarium to document, study, and communicate the diversity of the Texas flora.