A summary of the proposed project, in collaboration with Mitchell Provance at UC Riverside and Ignacio Ignacio García Ruiz at the Instituto Politécnico Nacional in Jiquilpan, Michoacan.

Diospyros is a large, well-known genus of tropical and temperate trees with a nearly worldwide distribution. Trees from the genus that produce valuable timber are often referred to as ebonies, and those producing edible fruit are called persimmons. In addition to its economic utility, the genus is intriguing from a number of biological standpoints. We plan to study the evolution and systematics of New World Diospyros, focusing mainly on the origin of about 51 Mesoamerican species and their genetic and geographical relationships. In Mesoamerica there are both common, widespread species, and rare species with extremely limited distributions. There is at least one native domesticated species, ‘zapote negro’ (D. digyna), and its distribution, along with those of other edible taxa, may be the result of anthropogenic assistance. Specifically, we propose to sequence six chloroplast genes from a sample of herbarium and field-collected Diospyros samples, in order to make both inter and intra-specific comparisons. We will analyze these data in a phylogeographic framework, using phylogenetic methods in order to understand patterns of speciation and dispersal. Our phylogenetic and phylogeographic analyses will clarify the origin of these taxa, delineate interspecific relationships, and help identify taxa of particular import for conservation.