Virginia S. Bryan

(Senior Research Associate)

As an undergraduate at the University of Michigan I developed an interest in systematics - at first in flowering plants - Mesembryanthemum , then Trillium, but soon in Sphagnum. My early studies concentrated on morphology, although in a search for taxonomically significant characters in Sphagnum I began what would become my predominant field of study - cytological studies applied to systematics.

After earning a Master of Science I left the University of Michigan to accompany my husband - as was common in the fifties - to his first appointment, Duke University, a propitious move. Under the direction of Professor Lewis E. Anderson I completed studies for the Ph. D. on the cytotaxonomy of cleistocarpous mosses and their putative related stegocarps. My work during this period and since then has included investigations of diverse mosses from various geographical areas, largely from the southeastern United States, California, and southeastern Europe.

Recently I completed a treatment of the Ephemeraceae for the North American Flora. It is "tentatively published" on the worldwide web and will eventually appear in a bryophyte volume of the Flora of North America. As a spin-off from this work my paper on synonymy in Micromitrium has recently appeared, dealing with the merger of M. austinii with M. tenerum, the type and its lectotypification.

Currently, my investigations continue with studies of the worldwide members of the Ephemeraceae. A history of the systematics of cleistocarpous mosses is in progress, as are a study of the work of a nineteenth century botanist whose discoveries are fundamental to cytology, genetics, and morphology of mosses, and also one on a unique cytological situation in Ceratodon purpureus.

 Shaw Laboratory
 139 Biological Sciences Bldg.
 Box 90338
 Department of Biology
 Duke University
 Durham
 North Carolina 27708
 U.S.A.

 Phone: (+1) 919 660-7345
 Fax: (+1) 919 660-7293