Member Institutions:

• Bowling Green State U.
• Cleveland State U.
• Kent State U.
• Medical College of Ohio
• Miami U.
• The Ohio State U.
• Ohio U.
• University of Cincinnati
• University of Toledo
• Wright State U.
• Youngstown State U.

Research Interests

Dr. Graham's research deals with the biosystematics of higher plants, in particular the classification and evolutionary history of the flowering plant family Lythraceae, the Loosestrifes. Researcone of many attractive species in this genus of possible horticultural value.h involves gathering and analyzing data from floral and vegetative morphology, chromosomes, pollen, and in collaboration with other laboratories, molecular data from nuclear and chloroplast genomes. Results appear primarily as taxonomic revisions and as phylogenetic histories. Recent and ongoing student projects include a pollen morphology survey of the crape myrtles using SEM, study of breeding system changes in species of Cuphea (right) with alternating sexual and agamospermic reproduction, phylogenetic analysis of the family Lythraceae, and within the family, the genera Cuphea, Lythrum, Heimia, and Ginoria using morphological and molecular data. Techniques learned are widely applicable to flowering plant systematics and can be used to answer a variety of questions from the family to the population level.

Several genera are of economic or prospective economic value. Crape myrtle, Lagerstroemia, is widely planted in warm climates as an urban landscape tree. A few species of Cuphea are of growing importance in the horticultural trade and many species with attractive showy flowers and perennial habits offer prospects for new introductions. Cuphea is also on the list of USDA's alternative crop plants as an oilseed source. Lawsonia is the commercial source of the dye henna. Heimia is an auditory hallucinogen as a result of production of 5 alkaloids that act synergistically. The pharmaceutical value of the genus is being investigated for its strong anti-inflammatory effects. Lythrum salicaria (see image), Ammannia coccinea, and Rotala indica are all invasives of wet habitats in the United States, with L. salicaria reducing natural wetland diversity and the other genera becoming troublesome weeds in rice fields of the South and West.

Selected References

• Graham, S. A. 1997. The anatomy ofthe Lindbergh case. Journal of the Academy of Forensic Sciences. May 1997: 368-377.
• _____. 1998. Relationships among autogamous species of Cuphea section Brachyandra (Lythraceae). Acta Botanica Brasileira 12: 203-214.
• _____. 1998 Revision of Cuphea section Diploptychia (Lythraceae). Systematic Botany Monographs 53: 1-96.
• _____ and A. Graham. 1999 Thc evolution and taxonomic significance of diaperturate pollen in the eurypalynous genus Cuphea (Lythraceae). Proceedings, Royal Botanic Garden, Kew (in press).
• _____ and T. Cavalcanti. 1999. The yellow-flowered species of Cuphea (Lythraceae), including three new taxa. Brittonia 51: 24-30.

Dr. Graham's Online Research
Kent State Department of Biological Sciences
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