Plant Systematics, Conservation Biology, and Ethnobotany

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Aaron Floden, Ph.D.

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Aaron Floden, Ph.D.

Curator
Flora of Missouri
Science & Conservation Division

Research Interests
• Flora of Missouri
• Flora of the Midwest
• Plant Systematics

Investigating allopatric populations of Clinopodium coccineum. 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 coccineum is a small shrub in the mint family with attractive red flowers. The distribution of this species is disjunct in three separate regions of the Southeastern U.S. Coastal Plain. It occurs from Louisiana to the Apalachicola region of Florida, the peninsula of Florida around Orlando, and in the Altamaha Grit region of southeastern Georgia. The second area of distribution has previously been described as a different species, C. macrocalyx Small, though it is currently unrecognized. This project will investigate whether there are morphological differences between these allopatric populations that might justify recognizing two species, and possibly test for molecular differences using standard barcoding markers.

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