PEET: Taxonomic Monographs of Meteoriaceae Mosses

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9522034 Magill Mosses, although conspicuous in tropical forests, are among the more neglected groups of organisms, especially for tropical parts of the world. There are few institutions in North America with significant resources for their study, but one such is the Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, where Drs. Robert Magill and Bruce Allen have pulled together a team of colleagues for a five-year enterprise studying mosses of the family Meteoriaceae. Traditional morphological investigations, supplemented when possible with gametophyte culturing studies, will be enhanced with additional data from molecular analyses, including DNA sequencing with assistance from colleagues at Washington University. Field collecting in Central and South America and in Africa will target both taxa and regions needing better samples, and will make possible biogeographical studies of current and historical distribution patterns. Improved taxonomic understanding of species diversity in these mosses and plausible hypotheses of their evolutionary and phylogenetic relationships will result from the work. In particular, tests can be made of the idea that the pendent, epiphytic habit of many of the Meteoriaceae has evolved convergently or independently a number of times, in various parts of the New and Old World tropics. Training of new graduate and postdoctoral students is a significant component of the project, through associations with three universities in the area, Washington University, the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and St. Louis University. Formal course work as well as laboratory and museum study comprise the training program, along with field work and apprenticeship in taxonomic monographic research. Computerization of many aspects of the enterprise, including specimen databasing, character analyses, and phylogenetic inference, enhances the timely dissemination of results through the Missouri Botanical Garden's World Wide Web service.