Pringle Herbarium Botanists Embark on Third Expedition to Colombia

A group of 13 people with a Columbian forest background who are standing together.
The Ferns of Columbia Project team in Columbia.

The Ferns of Colombia team, including Sarah K. Morris, Plant Biology doctoral candidate, and longtime Pringle Herbarium Associates Dr. Michael Sundue & Dr. Weston Testo, completed a successful third expedition to Colombia for the National Science Foundation-funded Ferns of Colombia project.

The fern species Moranopteris taenifolia in a Columbian forest.
The fern species Moranopteris taenifolia. Photo credit: Sarah Morris

This international collaborative project includes botanists from the Botanical Research Institute of Texas, the University of Antioquia in Medellin, Colombia, the Field Museum in Chicago and the University of Valle in Cali, Colombia.

The Ferns of Colombia project aims to document the fern diversity of the one of the most species-rich countries on Earth and determine what drives the evolution of this outstanding diversity. This third expedition was based in the Valle de Cauca department and focused on ferns of the Choco Biogeographic Region, a biodiversity hotspot. The team collected nearly 700 herbarium specimens and DNA samples. Many of these collections were of species that had not yet been documented in Colombia, and some of them are species that have not yet been described!

A group of scientists is hiking in a Columbian forest.
Photo credit: Sarah Morris

The specimens collected on this trip will be distributed to herbaria in Colombia and around the world. Additionally, the DNA tissue samples will be used to power studies of plant evolution, speciation, biogeography, and macroecology.

Follow the project on Twitter using #FernsOfColombia and #HelechosDeColombia.