Research Training Program

Mike Spencer
University of Central Florida
Orlando, FL

Lyman Smith, Ph.D.
Department of Botany

"This is, perhaps, the Smithsonian's most valuable contribution to the scientific community."

Bromeliad Floristics; a taxonomic investigation of the genus Euzmania

Since the publication of Dr. Smith's monograph on the Bromeliaceae in 1977, many new species have been added. The goal of this project was to revise the genus Euzmania. This involved a complete literature search to update the number of species, and the creation of a key to accomodate these new species. Over 175 plants were determined from Colombia and five new species were described. Requests were made for all of the Euzmania indexes from the largest collections of Euzmania so that they could be determined. It quickly became evident that a thorough revision of the genus would take much longer than the ten week period of the internship. This was also evident to the advisor, who suggested that the research be continued as a Ph.D. thesis. Aside from work on the Euzmania, many bromeliads were identified from the other genera that were sent for determination from other herbaria. There were 50-75 of these. A form for describing bromeliads was created which is used both to record data and to list all determinations. When completed, the results of this internship will be published as a supplement to Dr. Smith's monograph. Other, smaller, findings will be published along the way.

This research was supported by a grant from the Educational Outreach Fund.