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Wild ginger across Eastern U.S. Focus of next session of APSU Provost Lecture Series

Austin Peay State University

Clarksville, TN – Wild ginger is one of the most common wildflower species found in the moist forests of eastern North America, where it often carpets forest floors with its distinctive kidney-shaped leaves and small brownish-maroon flowers.

In the past, botanists recognized three different species of wild ginger but today all recognize just one species, Asarum canadense. This topic will be the focus of the next session of the Provost Lecture Series at Austin Peay State University.

Dr. Dwayne Estes
Dr. Dwayne Estes

Dr. Dwayne Estes, associate professor of biology, will present “Eastern North American Wild Gingers: How Many Species Do We Really Have?” from 3:00pm-4:30pm, Thursday, October 6th in the Morgan University Center, Room 303. All presentations in the Provost Lecture Series are free and open to the public.

The goal of Estes’ study was to study wild ginger across the eastern U.S. using a combination of morphological and molecular techniques to evaluate whether wild ginger as currently recognized should be considered a single highly variable species or whether it should be split into two or more distinct species.   

Estes is in his fourth year at APSU. He also serves as a principal investigator in the Center of Excellence for Field Biology. He graduated in 2008 from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville with a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology. His primary research interests include vascular plant systematics, floristics and biogeography of eastern North America, and the vegetation of Tennessee.    

Other sessions in the Provost Lecture Series also are planned for the academic year. All sessions are from 3:00pm-4:30pm in the MUC, Room 303 (unless noted otherwise) and include the following:

October 13th: Dr. Korre Foster, assistant professor of music
October 20th: Susan Bryant, professor of art
October 27th: Angelina Fowler, Center of Excellence for Field Biology
November 3rd: Dr. Dan Frederick, professor of geology and geography
November 10th: Dr. Kathrine Flower, assistant professor of sociology
November 17th: Darren Michael, associate professor of theater and dance
December 1st: Dr. Tim Leszczak, assistant professor of health and human performance
January 12th: Dr. Ellen Smyth, instructor of mathematics
January 19th: Dr. Ann Silverberg, professor of music
January 26th: Dr. Marsha Lyle-Gonga, assistant professor of political science
February 2nd: Dr. Rebecca Johansen, assistant professor of biology
February 9th: Dr. Sergei Markov, associate professor of biology
February 16th: Cynthia Marsh, professor of art
February 23rd: Dr. Christine Mathenge, associate professor of geology
March 1st: Dr. Robert Shelton, associate professor of chemistry
March 15th, MUC 307: Dr. Allyn Smith, associate professor of physics
March 22nd: Dr. Sharon Mabry, professor of music
March 29th: Dr. Cameron Sutt, assistant professor of history
April 5th: Mark DeYoung, assistant professor of art
April 12th: Dr. Tim Winters, professor of English
April 19th, MUC 103: Dr. Jeffrey Wood, professor of music

The Provost Lecture Series seeks to foster a spirit of intellectual and scholarly inquiry among faculty, staff and students. The program will be used as a platform for APSU faculty members who are recent recipients of provost summer grants, who have been awarded faculty development leaves and who have engaged in recent scholarly inquiry during sabbatical leaves.

APSU faculty members with recent research of acclaim also will be given a platform within this series. In addition, other faculty members of local or widespread renown will be invited to lecture within this series.

For more information about the Provost Lecture Series, call Dr. Brian Johnson, assistant vice president of academic affairs at APSU, at 931.221.7992 or email him at johnsonb@apsu.edu.

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