Assistant Scientist – Flora of Missouri Herbarium
Research Interests • Flora of Missouri • Flora of the Midwest • Plant Systematics
A preliminary investigation of the Clinopodium brownei (Lamiaceae) species complex. Floden is the Curator of the Flora of Missouri, and his research interests include floristics and taxonomy of plants of the southwestern U.S. Clinopodium brownei is a widespread species of mint (Lamiaceae) found from the Southeastern United States through the Bahama's and into Mexico and Guatemala. Over this large area of distribution, there are notable morphological variations that have been described at species level in several genera; C. ludens, C. xalapense, Micromeria bahamensis, and M. pilosiuscula. We will investigate the taxonomy through morphometric data collected from specimens, and molecular phylogenetic data to determine the relationships of these in the broader Lamiaceae tribe Menthineae and make the appropriate nomenclatural combinations if necessary. These investigations will include coding in R for both molecular and morphometric study, various programs for sequence alignment and analyses, and herbarium specimen examination. It is possible for the student participating in this project to receive co-authorship on a publication resulting from this work.
Regions
Featured Projects
Themes