Systematics of Monotropoideae and Pyroloideae (Ericaceae)

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).This project examines two groups of highly unusual members of the blueberry family, including some species without leaves. Goals include how to tell the species apart, and determining how the species in each group are related to each other and to the rest of the family. A faculty member and his students will analyze morphological and DNA sequence data from field-collected specimens to build evolutionary trees from which conclusions will be drawn. A web-based module that teaches species analysis skills will also be developed.The classification of these plants, most native to the USA, has been uncertain for over 200 years. This work will yield well-defined groups with names that anyone, including conservation professionals, can use. The study of evolutionary relationships will reveal how many times loss of leaves, uncommon among plants, has happened in this group. It will also place the leafless group solidly as a model for further evolutionary studies, which is important because of the special relationship that these plants have with fungi. Graduate and undergraduate students will be trained in all aspects of the work and the species analysis teaching module will be available for broad use.