ERIC LOPRESTI'S ECOLOGY AND NATURAL HISTORY SITE
  • Research
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  • Abronia
  • Trichostema laxum
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I've been working on the ecology of Trichostema laxum, a cheery little serpentine-endemic mint in California, since 2013. The project has gone in ways I have not expected, but has taught me much about pollination, plant reproduction, color polymorphisms, fire ecology, and more. This work involves a bunch of awesome collaborators: Jenny Van Wyk (UC Davis/UMass Amherst), Tim Miller (CSU-Bakersfield/UC-Davis), John Mola (UC Davis), Kathy Toll (Duke/MSU), Ross Brennan (UC Davis), Marj Weber (MSU), and you (?) on various aspects of the project.  

I've also had outside help. A bunch of people volunteered to grow out grew out seeds of T. laxum with me in 2016, and thanks to this joint effort, we now have a good idea of the Mendelian genetics behind certain flower color polymorphisms in T. laxum. 

I'll write more here soon as it develops, but we've got some awesome data on outcrossing, pollination, fire, herbivory, and more! 

Only one paper so far (but its a good one!): 
​LoPresti, EF; Van Wyk, JI.; Mola, JM; Toll, K; Miller TE & NM Williams. Wildfire lowers outcrossing in an annual mint through altered pollinator communities and changes in plant morphology. American Journal of Botany  105: 1-11

Our largely ecological data could be really helped by - and potentially really useful for - someone interested in plant population genetics or chemistry, especially of anthocyanins or the anthocyanin pathway - we're a fun bunch of collaborators, I promise! 

Also happy to share seed and data for other projects. There are interesting things going on with herkogamy/selfing potential, glandular trichome volatiles, pollen color, and just about everything else. I have seed from ~30 populations, some seed with 2-3 generations of inbreeding, different levels of parental herkogamy, etc. If it seems like a perhaps good system for whatever you are looking at, give it a try! 
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  • Research
  • Publications
  • Abronia
  • Trichostema laxum
  • Seeds
  • Pictures
  • Other stuff