Solanaceae systematics
Solanum whatenii, a Bolivian species described in 2005
The Solanaceae research programme has two principal components:
- Descriptive level taxonomy of the circa 1,500 species of Solanum, one of the ten most species-rich genera of angiosperms.
- Phylogenetic studies on monophyletic groups of species and genera in the family.
Both these strands address broad questions about the origin and maintenance of diversity, and as part of the Solanum work large databases of specimens are becoming useful in assessing species range change over time.
EU-SOL project