I am interested in many aspects of plant evolution, population genetics, and conservation. I am particularly interested in polyploid and homoploid hybridization. For my M.S. project at the University of South Dakota I studied the population genetics of an extremely rare endemic - Lithophragma maximum. Now in my third year of Ph.D. work at the University of Tennessee - Knoxville, I am studying species relationships and hybridization in the genus Sarracenia , the North American Pitcher Plants.
Publications
Furches, M.S., K.
Helenurm, and L. Wallace.Microsatellites reveal genetic diversity in Lithophragma maximum (Saxifragaceae), an endangered, endemic plant
of San Clemente Island, California. Conservation Genetics, <PDF>
Wallace, L., M.S.
Furches, and K. Helenurm.2006.Polymorphic microsatellite loci Lithophragma
maximum (Saxifragaceae), an endemic plant of San Clemente
Island.Molecular Ecology Notes Vol. 6 Issue 2.
pages 459-461 <PDF>