I’m most interested in the evolutionary history of plants distributed in the páramos of the Andes.

I’m currently working on the phylogeny and biogeography of the genus Bartsia, a genus with ca. 50 species. Bartsia has a supposed African origin but there are only two species distributed in this continent, whereas in the South American páramos there are 45. My work is to determine the phylogenetic relationship for these species and to try elucidate how Bartsia diversified.

I also work on the genus Castilleja,  Indian Paintbrushes, a genus with ca. 190 species distributed in North, Central and South America, with a high degree of polyploidy.

Both genera are part of Orobanchaceae, the largest parasitic family of plants.

For both projects I’m using molecular data from several nuclear and chloroplast genes in conjunction with the latest phylogenetic methods and analyses.

I’m currently working on whole chloroplast genome sequences in order to find the most variable region for phylogenetic studies in Bartsia and Castilleja.