Vicky Beckers

Wood provides mechanical support and long-distance transport of water and minerals in plants. Over evolutionary time, various cell types and an overwhelming diversity of cell patterns have evolved in the wood of flowering plants. In my PhD project I investigate evolutionary patterns in the microscopic wood anatomy of the Apocynaceae and Sapotaceae families. These results will not only be relevant to understanding species relationships, but also to complementary wood biology disciplines such as the study of structure-function relationships and wood identification to combat illegal logging.

Keywords

Ancestral state reconstruction, Apocynaceae, Ebenaceae, evolution, light and scanning electron microscopy, Sapotaceae, wood anatomy