Dissertation Research: Systematics of Calopogon and the Arethuseae (Orchidaceae)

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9623476 JANSEN This award will provide funds for materials and supplies as well as travel funds for obtaining material from Malaysia and the western Pacific and some DNA sequencing effort in the laboratory of Dr. Mark Chase at Kew Gardens, UK. This support will enhance the dissertation of Douglas H. Goldman who is a graduate student with Dr. Robert Jansen at University of Texas, Austin. The student's dissertation project has two elements 1) revision of the North American orchid genus Calopogon, utilizing molecular and morphological data sets and including population level analyses across the geographic range of species, especially to assess the status of the species C. oklahomensis, which is believed to be of hybrid origin and 2) molecular phylogenetic analysis of the tribe Arethuseae to which Calopogon belongs and which is a basal lineage critical to understanding relationships in the family Orchidaceae. This award will provide support for a graduate student pursuing studies of relationships in the orchid plant family. These plants are world-wide in distribution but many have restricted habitats and are threatened or endangered. Some are of major economic importance as nursery cultivars but their very beauty and popularity has threatened other rare species. Support for the training of graduate students in modern systematic and population biology methodologies is important for maintaining the workforce of scientists capable of addressing the questions and issues of biodiversity which are of increasing global concern.