Well, spank me red and call me a bad blogger. If you must know, life has been happening. Funny how it keeps doing that.
Anyway, I was reading Sean Hogan's book Trees for All Seasons, and there I encountered a gardeners' myth that refuses to die: that our favorite unusual rose-family trees are closely related to each other. It's an attractive thought, that Polylepis and Leucosidea and Lyonothamnus and Vauquelinia are part of the same group of garden-worthy trees that somehow got scattered across the globe. Unfortunately, it's also wrong.
I thought I'd blog about this topic, as it not only fits nicely with my research interests (essentially the interface of geography, non-floral form, and evolution, should you want to know), but also provides good system in which to discuss evolution and why we change names. Be prepared for vocabulary overload.
