Our overall mission: to explore the beauty and grandeur of nature and to help preserve it to engage in the spirit of scientific discovery to experience and share the joy of learning

The people in the Plant Systematics lab at San Diego State University conduct research on the evolution of       land plants. We acquire new data from all sources: morphology, ultrastructure, cytology, embryology,       palynology, and DNA. Our research goals have three foci:   1) inferring the phylogenetic relationships of plant groups and using that pattern of evolutionary history       to study character evolution, biogeography, ecology, and evolutionary process;   2) investigating the delimitation of plant species and infraspecies, especially in evaluating rare and       endangered taxa;   3) discovering and documenting the plant species and community structure of local regions in floristic studies.