Systematics

Plant systematists at the Garden study the origins, patterns, and conservation of plant and fungal diversity. Systematic expertise of the scientific staff at NYBG ranges from fungi, lichens, algae, and mosses, to ferns and flowering plants. The goals of systematics research lie principally in addressing questions of plant classification, historical biogeography, plant-animal interactions, and character evolution. Phylogenetic trees generated from systematics research are also valuable in comparative disciplines such as phytochemistry and ethnobotany, and systematics research also provides a critical basis to inform conservation practices.

NYBG’s Systematics Projects:

Bringing Asia to Digital Life: Mobilizing Underrepresented Asian Herbarium Collections in the US to Propel Biodiversity Discovery
A Complete Web-based Monograph of the Tribe Miconieae (Melastomataceae)
Evolution and Systematics of the Neotropical Clade of Schefflera (Araliaceae)
The Green Algae Tree of Life
Leaf Architecture: Applications of Leaf Architecture in Systematics and Forest Management
Legume Research at The New York Botanical Garden
Monographia: Open-source Software to Automate Revisionary Systematic Studies
OPUS: A Career in Cycad Biology: An e-monograph
Phylogenetics and Taxonomy of Ormosia
A phylogenomics approach to resolving one of the world’s most diverse, tropical angiosperm radiations: Melastomataceae
Phylogeny and Systematics of the Characeae
Phylogeography and Conservation Genetics of the Caribbean Zamia clade
Resolving a paradox of global botanical biodiversity: Why is Africa the “odd man out?”
Revision of Calamus
Surviving a mass extinction: Lessons from the K-Pg fern spike
A Systematic Monograph of Swartzia
Systematics and Biogeography of the Woodland Sedges Carex section Laxiflorae (Cyperaceae)
Systematic Studies of the Burseraceae
Systematics of Symplocos
Systematics of Rhynchospora
Understanding the effects of ploidal level on responses to global change in plants