Charles C. Davis

Charles C. Davis

On Leave, Academic Year 2023-2024
Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
Curator of Vascular Plants in the Harvard University Herbaria
Charles C. Davis

Faculty Support: Bridget Power

Our research on plant diversity integrates the disciplines of systematics, paleobiology, evolution, ecology, and molecular biology. One major theme that unites these disciplines is phylogenetic theory, which we apply to reconstruct the history of plant diversity through evolutionary time. Biogeography, biome evolution, plant-insect interactions, and horizontal gene transfer are some of the focal points of our work in this area. Our recent projects have sought to understand the origins of intercontinental disjunctions, the age of modern tropical rain forest, the maintenance of morphological stasis in the tree of life, and mechanisms for horizontal gene transfer. This research combines fieldwork with specimen-based studies in the herbarium and molecular approaches in the lab. Broader interests of our lab also include monographic and floristic study.

Recent Publications

Cai, L., Arnold, B. J., Xi, Z., Khost, D. E., Patel, N., Hartmann, C. B., Manickam, S., Sasirat, S., Nikolov, L. A., Mathews, S., Sackton, T. B., & Davis, C. C. (2021). Deeply Altered Genome Architecture in the Endoparasitic Flowering Plant Sapria himalayana Griff. (Rafflesiaceae). Current Biology, 31(5), 1002–1011.e9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.12.045

Davis, C. C. (2023). The herbarium of the future. Trends in Ecology & Evolution (Amsterdam), 38(5), 412–423. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2022.11.015

Davis, C. C., Lyra, G. M., Park, D. S., Asprino, R., Maruyama, R., Torquato, D., Cook, B. I., & Ellison, A. M. (2022). New directions in tropical phenology. Trends in Ecology & Evolution (Amsterdam), 37(8), 683–693. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2022.05.001

Daru, B. H., Willis, C. G., & Davis, C. C. (2017). Widespread phylogenetic homogenization of plant communities from anthropogenic change. Genome, 60(11), 924. https://doi.org/10.1139/gen-2017-0178

Cai, L., Zhang, H., & Davis, C. C. (2022). PhyloHerb: A high‐throughput phylogenomic pipeline for processing genome skimming data. Applications in Plant Sciences, 10(3), e11475–n/a. https://doi.org/10.1002/aps3.11475

Courses Taught

OEB 103 Plant Systematics and Evolution
OEB 363 Plant Diversity and Evolution

Contact Information

Harvard University Herbaria
22 Divinity Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
p: 617-496-0515

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