Desert StudiesCole Larson-Whittaker
2017 The Garden Club of America Award in Desert Studies
Cole Larson-Whittaker is a master’s student in plant biology and conservation at Arizona State University in Phoenix. He will collaborate with the Desert Botanical Garden to determine the genetic origins of Agave murpheyi, one of the major agricultural crops of the pre-Columbian Southwest. His research will use spatial models, state-of-the-art genetic analysis, and fieldwork to reanalyze A. angustifolia, taxonomically and molecularly, so that the genetic connection between the newly reclassified A. angustifolia and A. murpheyi can be tested to expand the phylogenetic understanding of the genus Agave.
The Garden Club of America Award in Desert Studies
To promote the study of horticulture, conservation, botany, environmental science, and landscape design relating to the arid landscape.
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