Kim Shearer

Morton Arboretum · New Plant Development Program

Cape hyacinth ( Galtonia candicans ) is a geophytic herbaceous perennial from South Africa. It produces large inflorescences of pendulous white flowers during mid to late summer, followed by capsules filled with copious amounts of seed. The species has potential as a low-water-use landscape plant, but lodging and excessive seed production, which po...

Acer is a large and important genus of woody plants most commonly encountered as small to large trees in urban landscapes. Considerable investigation has been devoted to addressing the taxonomy of maples, but little is known about genome sizes across the genus. Relatively more work has been conducted to determine chromosome numbers and ploidy of mo...

Summary. Modern evolutionary research suggests that new species often arise rapidly from hybridization and chromosome doubling, augmenting the slow, divergent processes originally detailed by Darwin. Relationships between kindred species are thus best represented not by a simple branching candelabra or tree, as pictured in our old biology texts, bu...

Dogwoods (Cornus spp.) are valuable nursery crops grown as landscape plants throughout much of the world. Although there has been considerable work on breeding and selecting dogwoods, there is little information available on genome sizes (DNA content) and ploidy levels within the genus, particularly for specific clones and cultivars. Our objective...