What’s up?
Regular updates from fieldwork, the lab and our Melastome Seminar Series -Virtual!
The environmental context of traits and interactions
In two recent publications (Dellinger et al. 2025: Does the abiotic environment influence the distribution of flower and fruit colors? https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.70044; Kopper et al. 2025: Mountain colonization precedes shifts...
MountBuzz fieldwork in Madagascar and Borneo started
In the past month, Agnes had the great opportunity to travel to two of the world's most outstanding islands: Madagascar and Borneo. Madagascar is the world's oldest island, fourth largest in size, and a global biodiversity...
ERC Project MountBuzz kicked off!
The start of 2025 also signified the start of my big ERC Starting grant MountBuzz: relating context-dependent plant-pollinator interactions to macroevolution. Our aim in this project is to study the evolution of reproductive...
Successful fieldtrip in Colombia to study pollination, fruit dispersal and mites in Pyxidantheae
We, that's Viki Wieser and Johan Urrea, have just finished two months of intense field work in Colombia, exploring the tribe Pyxidantheae and the ecology of these plants. We’ve travelled to the departments Boyacá, Antioquía,...
Bringing the tropics to Vienna
by Benjamin Lazarus (PhD student) Over the past year, we have been gathering a bourgeoning collection of Melastome species housed in the Botanical Garden of Vienna … and we have been putting these new specimens to good use! Our...
Motherhood and amazing colleagues!
The past months have been a little different for my lab with me being on maternity leave and dividing my time between childcare and work during nap times. First, I have to say - while it is challenging sometimes, it is also...
Fieldwork in Ecuador and Brazil
Hello world! It’s Ben and Ash from South America… Agnes explained the thrust of our project best in her recent post “Rhexia fieldwork II: buzz-flower biomechanics” so make sure to check that out! But if two tabs is too many for...
ERC Starting grant: MountBuzz
I am beyond thrilled to finally share the news that I have been awarded an ERC Starting grant for studying how plant-pollinator interaction networks and floral traits change along elevational gradients across the tropics. The...
Rhexia fieldwork II: buzz-flower biomechanics
After a very successful and insightful field season in 2022, Ash, Ben and Agnes are back to the field to study buzz-pollination in the small Melastomataceae genus Rhexia! Rhexia represent the only genus in the family which has...
First semester as a new PI is coming to an end…
My first semester as a new PI at the University of Vienna is coming to an end... transitioning from being a postdoc to a PI - brought some surprises for me, and some things just stayed the same! Like many other postdocs, I have...