fieldwork

Last big field trip for Petunieae!

Anonymous — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 02:06:18 +0000

Last big field trip for Petunieae! Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 11/01/2019 - 20:06

We decided to one last push to get additional species for our study of flower color evolution in the Petunieae tribe. Luke started off the trip in Porto Alegre in S. Brazil. He and two members of Loreta Freitas' Lab (Alice Backes and Pedro Pezzi) collected along the southern Coast as well as into the nearby highlands. After a massive batch of library prep in the Freitas lab, he met up with Rocío in Argentina. After a visit to the famous Igazu Falls, they wound their way around Misiones and Corrientes. In total, Luke and his collecting partners were able to find 15 (!) species of Petunia, Calibrachoa, Nierembergia and Brunfelsia in flower! You can read more about the trip on Luke's page and also see more images on Rocío's website.

Luke and Rocio reprised their collecting partnership and set off to find Petunia and allied genera in Brazil and Northern Argentina.

Off

Traditional

White

Adventures in Argentina

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Mar 2019 16:36:15 +0000

Adventures in Argentina Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 03/11/2019 - 10:36

One of the most charismatic genera of Petunieae is Fabiana, a group of xerophytes native to the southern Andes and especially species-rich in Argentina. As part of our NSF-funded research on flower color evolution in this clade, Luke and Rocio spent two weeks exploring the dry valleys of northern and central Argentina in search of these plants, and were able to find several of them flower. Fabiana bryoides, shown below, wins for the cutest species, with its extremely reduced leaves and tiny lilac flowers. Luke also found time to ford a river in the rental car, and impressively, avoid getting stuck in the mud for the entire time. They were accompanied by botanist Virginia Palchetti, a PhD student at the University of Cordoba who is studying salinity tolerance in the succulent Lycium humile (those black berries below, image by L. Wheeler).

Luke and Rocio traveled the arid zones of Argentina in search of Petunieae.

Off

Traditional

White

Mini-field trip to DBG for Fabiana

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 15:11:03 +0000

Mini-field trip to DBG for Fabiana Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/07/2018 - 09:11

Luis, Lexi, Nick and Stacey spent the day at Denver Botanic Gardens, which feature two species of Fabiana (F. imbricata and Petunia [really a Fabiana] patagonica) in its living collections. This trip marked the kick-off of Luis' project -- he is studying the evolution of plant habit in Solanaceae, with a focus on the intriguing cushion plants. Thanks to fantastic DBG staff (esp. Mike Bone) for their help!

We took a little drive to the Denver Botanic Gardens to collect Fabiana in flower.

Off

Traditional

White

Visit to Buenos Aires

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Jan 2018 21:42:45 +0000

Visit to Buenos Aires Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 01/10/2018 - 14:42

Stacey spent much of winter break in Argentina working on the Petunieae project. In Buenos Aires, she visited the famous Instituto Darwinion, which houses an impressive collection of Solanaceae. She also met the inimitable Julian Greppi, a biologist at the Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Together with botantists from Brazil, Julian has been spent years working the taxonomy of Calibrachoa and developing horticultural varieties from native species. There is even a video about his efforts!

Stacey returned to Argentina to learn about Petunieae of the North.

Off

Traditional

White

A summer expedition to hunt for Physalis and allies

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 04:26:34 +0000

A summer expedition to hunt for Physalis and allies Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 07/11/2017 - 22:26

Physalis and related genera like Chamaesaracha and Quincula have their centers of diversity in the Southwestern U.S. and Mexico. Some of these species are edible and have been long been cultivated in North America (examples: tomatillos, groundcherries). After a great Botany meeting, Chelsea and Rocío took off in search of these taxa in Texas and New Mexico. In total, they found 10 species of Physalis, 6 of Chamaesarcha as well as the one species of Quincula! All this with only one episode of getting the car stuck in a creek bed and one trip to the hospital. You can check out some pictures from their great adventure here (just scroll towards the end - our albums are getting big!).

Chelsea and Rocío collected throughout Texas and New Mexico this June.

Off

Traditional

White

Crazy for creosote bush

Anonymous — Tue, 09 May 2017 04:13:26 +0000

Crazy for creosote bush Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/08/2017 - 22:13

Will, an undergraduate in the lab, and Julienne accompanied Rob to southern Arizona and California this spring to investigate pollinator visitation and reproductive interactions between diploid, tetraploid, and hexaploid creosote bush (Larrea tridentata). It was a stellar year for flowers in the desert southwest, with many plants blooming abundantly that are usually quite sparse. It was also a good year for native bees, the primary pollinators of creosote bush with 20 specialist species, and the team was able to collect a lot of data on ploidy-specific visitation. The abundant bloom also helped with making controlled crosses between the ploidies where they co-occur, information crucial for understanding the role genome duplication plays in driving patterns of diversification. You can hear more about the results of this work when Rob presents at the Evolution meetings in Portland this summer.

It was a great year for studying creosote bush pollination in the Southwest U.S.

Off

Traditional

White