Dr. Jay Raveill

Dr. Raveill teaches Plant Biology, Plant Identification, and Biological Perspectives, with occasional offerings of other courses.  He also curates the 20,000 specimen UCM Herbarium (WARM) and directs the operations of the departmental greenhouse.

His primary research focus is the taxonomy and phylogeny of North American representatives of the leguminous genus Desmodium and related genera.   Current or past projects include: documentation of the rare D. humifusum as a hybrid between two common species, D. paniculatum and D. rotundifolium; distribution of genetic (allozyme) variation among single species and mixed populations of two interfertile species, D. paniculatum and D. perplexum; and preparation of treatments of the genera Desmodium, Lespedeza and Kummerowia for volume two of Steyermark's New Flora of Missouri.  He is presently sequencing chloroplast and nuclear DNA, searching for highly variable regions for use in phylogeny construction.

He also maintains an interest in the general flora of Missouri and is conducting floristic surveys on public and private lands.