2023 Field Biology Award: Agnes Dellinger

Agnes Dellinger’s research helps us understand how flowers evolve to adapt to different pollinators. She focuses her work on Melastomataceae, one of the 10 largest families of flowering plants, with the meadow beauties (Rhexia) being the only species native to the US of this otherwise mostly tropical, large plant family. Melastomataceae exhibit changes from bee buzz-pollination to pollination by vertebrates, such as hummingbirds, lizards or mammals. Dellinger uses interdisciplinary approaches, such as field experiments and statistics, to test hypotheses on functional relationships between flowers and pollinators and better understand evolution and divergence among species.

She initially conducted field work in the northern Andes of South America, and she is expanding her research to sites in Costa Rica, coastal rainforests of Brazil, montane Madagascar and northern Borneo.

For more information, visit www.agnesdellinger.org.

The Maxwell/Hanrahan Awards in Field Biology support individual scientists, elevate their diverse perspectives and enable them to commit time to the observation and experimentation that help us better understand ourselves and the world around us.

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