Rudolf Schmid

I am broadly interested in (1) botanical bibliography, biography, and the history of botany, (2) the flora and vegetation of California and other mediterranean regions, and (3) the systematic anatomy and evolutionary morphology of the land plants (bryophytes and vascular plants). My research thus involves these areas: (1) botanical bibliography, biography, and history, especially of the period 1870-1945; (2) the flora and vegetation of California and adjacent areas, especially Baja California; (3) the flora and vegetation of New Caledonia; (4) conservation and threatened taxa, especially concerning gymnosperms; (5) systematic anatomy, including taxonomy, of anomalous taxa and sundry families such as Actinidiaceae, Burmanniaceae, Capparaceae, Labiatae, Pinaceae, Pyrolaceae, Scheuchzeriaceae, Triuridaceae, and especially Myrtaceae; (6) functional and comparative anatomy and morphology of wood, nectaries, flowers, fruits, and seeds, especially of their vascular systems.

Doctoral research sponsored has included: phylogenetics in Polypodiales (Pteridophyta), especially in Blechnaceae; succession and evolution of seedling morphology in lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia); floral ontogeny and the divergence of reproductive morphologies in Eucnide (Loasaceae); heteroblastic seedlings of green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica var. subintegerrima); systematics of Parnassia (Parnassiaceae)--generic overview and revision of North American taxa; longevity and development of needles of Pinus longaeva (bristlecone pine) and other conifers; the development and function of chasmogamy in Lamium amplexicaule (Labiatae).