Making Sense of Mountain Mints presented by Dr. Derick Poindexter

Join us at 6:30pm on September 2nd at the Kathleen Clay Edwards Library Meeting Room to learn about Mountain Mints.
1420 Price Park Dr., Greensboro, NC

This talk will introduce various aspects of cultivation and species biology within this genus, as well as taxonomic complications.  Species of the mint (Lamiaceae) genus Pycnanthemum Michx. (1803) have long been included in the horticultural trade, particularly in the United States where they serve not only an aesthetic role, but also provide considerable opportunity as a native attractant for pollinators. All currently described species of Mountain-mint are from eastern North America, except for a single California endemic, P. californicum Torr. ex Durand.  In addition, the purported center of diversity for the genus is in our home state of North Carolina. Despite the small size of the genus (ca. 20 spp.), biologists have perpetually struggled with species identification, largely due to the complex sexual systems found in the group, including aneuploidy, allopolyploidy, and autopolyploidy.

Derick Poindexter is a Plant Systematist at Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories and Arboretum, and a Research Associate of the University of North Carolina Herbarium, where his current work focuses on plant systematics, evolution, floristics, and taxonomy.  He holds an M.S. in Biology from Appalachian State University and a Ph.D. in Biology from UNC-Chapel Hill, where he utilized comprehensive methods to disentangle relationships in the genus Carex. As a native of the Southern Appalachians of North Carolina, much of Derick’s work has addressed issues regarding biodiversity and ecology within this region.

This program is free, open to the public, and all are welcome!