Graduate student J. F. Smith proposes a monographic revision and evolutionary study of the neotropical plant genus Columnea section Pentadenia. Under the direction of his major professor K. J. Sytsma, Mr. Smith will collect representatives of the South American species and characterize their reproductive morphology, chloroplast DNA sequences, and nuclear ribosomal DNA restriction patterns. The molecular data will be used to establish the evolutionary relationships among living species, and the reproductive structures will be interpreted against this evolutionary framework. The proposed study will increase our understanding of a poorly known tropical plant genus, and will use the most advanced means for unravelling their evolutionary history. By combining molecular approaches to evolutionary history with morphological data on functional characters, the project will illuminate the broad question of adaptation.
