Charlotte Taylor

Charlotte M. Taylor

Associate Curator

Research Interests

My research focusses on the systematics of neotropical members of the flowering plant family Rubiaceae, in particular the neotropical genus Palicourea and the closely related group Psychotria. Palicourea comprises about 200 species found from Mexico to Argentina, and from low to high elevations. My work on this group is directed at identifying individual species, and then elucidating evolutionary relationships among them with particular focus on evolution of distinctive characters or features; for more information, see the Palicourea home page. Psychotria comprises a polyphyleic, speciose group; in relation to this, see the Cephaelis home page.

Other Research Projects

The work on Rubiaceae is related to my general interest in neotropical floristics and patterns of plant diversity. I am also collaborating in the preparation of vascular plant floras for several sites in Colombia:

for the Amacayacu National Park, in southern, Amazonian Colombia, ca. 1400 species, under the direction of Prof. Agustin Rudas (arudas@ciencias.ciencias.unal.edu.co), Universidad Nacional, Santafé de Bogotá, Colombia;

for the Bajo Calima region in Valle, Colombia, on the coastal plain west of Cali, ca. 1400 species, in collaboration with Miryam Monsalve, Research Associate, Herbario de la Universidad del Valle (CUVC) in Cali;

for the Escalerete Reserve in central western Colombia, with Wilson Devia of the Tuluá Botanical Garden, Valle, Colombia.

Desiderata

Herbarium specimens of neotropical Rubiaceae, for which determinations will be returned.

Recent Publications

Taylor, C. M. 1996. Revision of Cruckshanksia and Oreopolus (Rubiaceae: Hedyotideae). Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 83: 459-477.

_______. 1996. Overview of the Psychotrieae (Rubiaceae) in the Neotropics. Opera Bot. Belg. 7: 261-270.

_______. 1997. Conspectus of the genus Palicourea (Rubiaceae: Psychotrieae) with the description of some new species from Ecuador and Colombia. Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 84: 224-262.

Charlotte Taylor/ taylor@mobot.org