Systematic and Evolutionary Studies in the Plant Family Onagraceae

密苏里州植物园的Raven和Hoch博士将继续他们对月见草科植物的多学科、多研究者的研究，月见草科植物是一个由16个属、全球约650个物种组成的群体。目标是完成对所有属和所有物种的彻底分类评估，并使用多年来产生的全面的形态、染色体和生化信息来生成中型开花植物家族的进化模式和过程的综合。这笔续订赠款的具体目标是完成对最大和最困难的两个属--火草属和岩藻属的分类修订；为几个区系名录(包括几个热带美洲区系名录)准备该科的分类处理；以及利用对各种形态、染色体和生化数据集的分支分析，确定属和种之间的系统发育关系。对不同数据集的系统发育分析结果的比较将为不同植物特征的进化速度的差异提供独特的见解，并将确定染色体组织变化和育种系统变化在物种形成和地理分布中的相对重要性。

Drs. Raven and Hoch of the Missouri Botanical Garden will continue their multi-disciplinary, multi-investigator study of the evening primrose family of plants, the Onagraceae, a group of 16 genera and ca. 650 species worldwide. The goals are to complete thorough taxonomic evaluations of all genera and all species, and to use the comprehensive morphological, chromosomal, and biochemical information produced over the years to generate a synthesis of the evolutionary patterns and processes in a medium sized family of flowering plants. Specific goals of this renewal grant are completion of taxonomic revisions of Epilobium (fireweeds) and Ludwigia, two of the largest and most difficult genera; preparation of taxonomic treatments of the family for several floristic inventories including several for tropical America; and determination of phylogenetic relationships among the genera and species, using cladistic analyses of various morphological, chromosomal, and biochemical datasets. Comparison of results from phylogenetic analyses on different datasets will provide unique insights into differences in rates of evolution in various plant features and will determine the relative importance of change in chromosome organization and change in breeding system in speciation and geographic dispersal.