Research Staff

Juan Carlos Penagos Zuluaga, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development

office phone: + 1 (314) 577- 9459
email: jpenagos@mobot.org

Missouri Botanical Garden
4344 Shaw Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63110
USA

Education
Ph.D., Yale University, 2020
M.S., University of Missouri, St. Louis, 2010
B.S., Forestry, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Medellin, 1994

I am broadly interested in the ecological and evolutionary interactions that maintain diversity and facilitate diversification in tropical trees. My research focuses on the intersection of ecology, taxonomy and systematic using the neotropical Lauraceae, an essential group of the diversity in lowland and montane ecosystems in the Neotropics. My recent studies explore changes in functional traits with elevation gradient in the Andean species of Lauraceae, the fruit shape and the pathogens' effect on seedlings in Supraocotea, and the ecology of gynodioecious trees of Ocotea.

Available upon request

Penagos Zuluaga, J.C., van der Werff, H. Park, B., Deren A.R., Comita, L.S., Queenborough, S.A, & Donoghue, M.J. 2021. Restriction-site-associated DNA sequencing resolves the phylogenetic relationships in the Ocotea complex (Lauraceae): Phylogenetic classification and character evolution. American Journal of Botany 108, 664–679. Penagos Zuluaga, J.C., Queenborough, S.A., & Comita L.S. 2020. Flowering sex ratios and costs of reproduction in gynodioecious Ocotea oblonga (Lauraceae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 131, 344–355 Park, B., Sinnott-Armstrong, M., Schlutius, C., Penagos Zuluaga, J.C., Spriggs, E., Simpson, R.G, Benavides, E., Landis, M., Sweeney, P.W., Eaton, D.A.R., & Donoghue, M.J. 2019. Sterile marginal flowers increase visitation and fruit set in the hobblebush (Viburnum lantanoides, Adoxaceae) at multiple spatial scales. Annals of Botany 123, 381–390. Krishnadas, M., Beckman, N., Penagos Zuluaga, J.C., Zhu, Y., Whitacre, J., Wenzel, J., Queenborough, S.A., & Comita, L.S. 2018. Environment and past land-use together predict functional diversity in a temperate forest. Ecological Applications, 28. 10.1002/eap.1802. Oberle, B., Ogle, K., Penagos Zuluaga, J.C., Sweeney, J., & Zanne, A. 2016. A Bayesian model for xylem vessel length accommodates subsampling and reveals skewed distributions in species that dominate seasonal habitats. Journal of Plant Hydraulics, 3, e003. Penagos Zuluaga, J.C. & Madriñán, S. 2015. Lauraceae. In: Bernal, R., S.R. Gradstein & M. Celis (eds.). 2015. Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia. Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. Penagos Zuluaga, J.C. 2014. Koeberliniaceae Engl. In: Jørgensen, P. M., M. H. Nee & S. G. Beck (eds). 2014. Cat. Pl. Vasc. Bolivia, Monogr. Syst. Bot. Missouri Bot. Gard. 127(1–2): i–viii, 1–1744. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis. Albrecht, M.A. & Penagos Zuluaga, J.C. 2012. Seed germination ecology of three imperiled plants of rock outcrops in the southeastern United States. Torrey Botanical Society 139, 86–95.