Assistant Scientist – Flora of Missouri Monographic Studies, Science & Conservation Division
Research Interests • Flora of Missouri • Flora of the Midwest • Plant Systematics
Molecular study of the yellow Erythronium species of the eastern United States. Floden is the Curator of the Flora of Missouri, and his research interests include floristics and taxonomy of plants of the southwestern U.S. Erythronium (trout lilies, Liliaceae) in the eastern US contains two groups, the white-flowered (E. albidum, E. mesochoreum, and E. propullans), and the yellow-flowered (E. americanum, E. rostratum, and E. umbilicatum) species. These two groups form monophyletic clades, but the diversity thus far discovered in the yellow-flowered species does not match the three recognized species, or 5 taxa. The student will work with field-collected samples, herbarium specimens, and molecular sequence data to investigate the diversity in the yellow-flowered group. The project will include morphological investigation, georeferencing and GIS, and molecular lab work and data analyses.
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