Our research centers on questions of plant diversity - how are species and higher clades related? how should these taxa be classified? what are the processes that have influenced their origins? how have key morphological characters evolved? do morphological and ecological features show convergence among unrelated taxa, or divergence within related taxa? what is the temporal setting for these diversifications? These questions are addressed on taxa from species to orders, and across temperate and tropical biomes. Molecular phylogenetics (genomic sequencing) is the primary way that phylogenetic frameworks are obtained to address these questions.