Project: Flora of Missouri. David Bogler currently manages the Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program and botanical laboratory at MBG, overseeing staff, students, and visitors using the anatomy, molecular, microscopes, and SEM equipment. Currently there are three ongoing projects available:

1) DNA Barcoding the Plants of Shaw Nature Reserve. An exciting new development in plant systematics is the rise of DNA barcoding - the use of standardized short...

Project: Species delimitation based on continuous morphological characters. Delimiting species is essential for elucidating the processes driving the origin and maintenance of biological diversity, as well as for basic and applied research in many areas of biology. Yet, how one goes about delimiting species has been a controversial issue in systematics. A broad consensus seems to be growing around the notion of recognizing species as separately evolving segments of metapopulatio...

Project: The genus Anthurium in northern Central America – morphology, DNA, ecology and evolution. Monica Carlsen is one of the specialists in the Araceae family at MBG. Araceae are a diverse tropical plant family with ca. 3,000 species, highly valuable as ornamental plants and flowers. Her research focuses in understanding the rapid radiation of the species-rich (ca. 900 species) Neotropical genus Anthurium (“flamingo” or “wax flower”), integrating revisi...