Plant Systematics, Conservation Biology, and Ethnobotany

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Aaron Floden, Ph.D.

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Aaron Floden, Ph.D.

Assistant Scientist – Flora of Missouri
Monographic Studies, Science & Conservation Division

Research Interests

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

Investigating allopatric populations of Calamovilfa arcuata (Poaceae). Floden is the Curator of the Flora of Missouri, and his research interests include floristics and taxonomy of plants of the southwestern U.S. Calamovilfa arcuata (Poaceae) is a rare grass that occurs in the Eastern Highland Rim of Tennessee, from where it was described, and a county in adjacent Alabama, (region 1) and then disjunct to the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas and Oklahoma (region 2). In both regions it occurs in river scour habitats which maintain an open environment. Morphology between these two regions differ in preliminary observations and also in plant sizes and the density of spikelets within the inflorescences. An initial assessment of one molecular barcode suggests there may be fixed differences between the two regions. This study will statistically compare morphology of the two regions and also expand molecular barcoding to include additional samples from both regions to test whether the two represent distinct lineages.

| Categories: Plant Systematics | Tags: Flora of Missouri, Flora of Midwest | Return