2023 Botany Speaker Series

The CalBotSoc botany speaker series showcases and promotes the work of early career botanists. If you are an early career botanist interested in giving a talk of general interest to our members, please contact our Membership Chair

Thursday, December 14, 2023 7-8pm PT

Candela Blanco Moreno, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
& Cal Poly Humboldt

“Attempting to unlock the enigma of western sessile-flowered Trillium:
Is scent the key?”

In western North America, six taxa of morphologically similar sessile-flowered Trillium are currently recognized: T.angustipetalum (Torr.) J.D. Freeman, T. albidum J.D. Freeman, T. albidum ssp. parviflorum (Soukup) Chambers & Meyers (sometimes elevated to T. parviflorum V.G. Soukup), T. chloropetalum (Torr.) Howell (var. chloropetalum and var. giganteum), and T. kurabayashii J.D. Freeman. Considerable intraspecific variation and overlapping traits among these taxa make them a challenge to distinguish morphologically. Moreover, phylogenetic analyses based on morphological and molecular data attempting to resolve the relationships between these six taxa have not yet provided conclusive results. New approaches using floral scent data for phylogenetic analyses provide a new perspective that can contribute to the understanding of this ambiguous group of plants: (1) Does scent bear phylogenetic signal in Trillium? (2) What is the best way to construct phylogenetic characters based on floral scent data to reflect taxonomic and evolutionary relationships? (3) How do phylogenetic and statistical approaches using floral scent chemistry compare when addressing taxonomic challenges in Trillium?

Candela Blanco Moreno is currently a postdoc at Cal Poly Humboldt. She studied Biology at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in Spain, where she also obtained her PhD. She has specialized in Paleobotany, focusing on the use of quantitative methods to study plant taxonomy, taphonomy, and ecology. During her postdoc she has been working on a variety of projects including Early Devonian plant defenses against herbivory, bryophyte fossil record, and Trillium phylogenetics based on scent data. She has a great interest in teaching and outreach.