by Agnes | Oct 1, 2024 | student research
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 new undergraduate student, Benjamin...
by Agnes | Oct 5, 2022 | student research
Local students from Boulder High School are supposed to do applied science projects – how fun! Finally, fellow Smith-lab postdoc Miranda Sinnott-Armstrong and I could team up to combine our interests in two incredibly important aspects of plant reproductive...
by Agnes | Jul 16, 2022 | fieldwork, student research
At the beginning of July, I travelled from Colorado to Florida (what a move to make for a climber in the middle of summer ;-)) to work on the Melastomataceae genus Rhexia (meadow beauties)! This is a small genus of only about 11 species, and, importantly, the only...
by Agnes | Apr 7, 2022 | student research
Closely related plant species frequently occur in sympatry and overlap in ecological characters. This overlap may lead to resource competition (i.e. for pollinators) and result in character displacement (i.e. divergence in floral phenotype or phenology) or...
by Agnes | Sep 22, 2021 | reflections and news, student research
This has been such a fun project! Thanks to José Valverde, whom I had the pleasure to co-advise during his licenciate thesis at Universidad de Costa Rica, we now know the pollinators of Meriania macrophylla! This species is special because its flowers share traits of...
by Agnes | May 3, 2021 | reflections and news, student research
José did his licenciatura degree at the University of Costa Rica, working on the pollination biology of Meriania macrophylla. There, José confirmed yet another shift to passerine pollination in the Merianieae. He decided to continue research on the pollination biology...
