Current Grants

2009–2013. Completing a virtual herbarium at the University of Connecticut. DBI-0847111. National Science Foundation. 

2009–2013. Collaborative Research: Systematic and ecological studies of North American Najas L. (Hydrocharitaceae). DEB-0841658. National Science Foundation.



Bryan Rodrigues databases maple specimens he collected during his CONN herbarium REU internship.
 
 UConn undergraduate Jillian Prescod digitally scans a CONN herbarium specimen as part of our NSF-funded database project. Kathy assumes her post as a veteran databaser.
 Lori (right) works with Tina, who has volunteered to help with our specimen database.

The strongly auricled sheaths of Najas section Euvaginatae distinguish the species from section Americanae.
 
 Left to right: Middlebury College students Cassidy Daloia & Vicenta Vhudziak, and their advisor Dr. Sallie Sheldon join forces with my grad student Nic Tippery and UConn UG lab assistant Emmeline Liu, as we begin a 3-year collaborative study of North American Najas. Conspicuous marginal teeth distinguish Najas guadalupensis subsp. floridana (a SEUS endemic) from its other subspecies. This remarkably clear, SW Georgia lake represents one of the few remaining habitats for Najas filifolia, an extremely rare North American endemic.





Seed of Najas minor showing curved phenotype
 Undergraduate research assistant Cassandra Ball records data from a Najas specimen.
 Seed of Najas gracillima from Connecticut
 Lori Benoit (right) trains Middlebury students Claire Bovet (left) and Kaitlin Conroy (center) in the molecular lab.

  This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation
under Grants Nos. DBI-0847111 and DEB-0841658
Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recomendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).
 
 
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