Evolution of growth and life forms in Piperales Country and continent relation: France (Europe), Fr. Guiana, Mexico, Costa Rica (America), China (Asia)

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Piperales represent virtually the whole diversity of growth and life forms in angiosperms including herbs, shrubs, trees, parasites, epiphytes and climbers. This diversity is symptomatic for the success of Piperales in many ecosystems. Despite the importance of plant life and growth forms for ecosystem complexity and biodiversity, few studies have evaluated their evolutionary occurrence and patterns across major groups of angiosperms. This project aims at analyzing life and growth form evolution in the order Piperales, which represents the largest clade of basal angiosperms. The project will combine (i) biomechanical techniques with (ii) recent molecular phylogenetic approaches to study form traits and their evolution. Our main approaches are (1) identifying essential biomechanical and hydraulic traits e.g. fiber production, secondary growth as well as stem rigidity/flexibility and conductivity in different forms, and (2) to observe how these traits and forms are distributed across taxa in the Piperales using a variety of phylogenetic methods.