Tom Lammers, Ph.D.

Herbarium Curator
Associate Professor
(920) 424-1002; lammers@uwosh.edu

Member:
International Association for Plant Taxonomy
American Society of Plant Taxonomists
Botanical Society of America

Background: 

Hello, everyone, and thank you for visiting my webpage. I am a botanist, a plant biologist, with an emphasis at the organismal level, rather than the cellular or molecular level. I received my B.S. in Botany from Iowa State University in Jul 1977. I was an active member of Botany Club (elected President my senior year), and was employed by the department in the greenhouses and herbarium. After two years in the workforce, I returned to graduate school. I earned an M.A. in Biology in July 1981 from the University of Northern Iowa. My thesis was entitled The Vascular Flora of Des Moines County, Iowa [Proc. Iowa Acad. Science 90: 55-71 (1983)] and was directed by the late Dr. Lawrence J. Eilers. While there, I was employed as the herbarium assistant, and held a teaching assistantship in the general biology labs. In January 1982, I began doctoral studies under Dr. Tod F. Stuessy in his lab at The Ohio State University. During my time there, I held a variety of teaching and research assistantships. I received my Ph.D. in Botany in September 1988; my dissertation was Systematics and Evolution of the Endemic Hawaiian Genus Clermontia Gaudichaud (Campanulaceae: Lobelioideae) [Syst. Bot. Monogr. 32:1-94 (1991) ] My first professional position after graduation was a two-year term appointment as Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Botany at Miami University in Ohio . Here, I taught a variety of plant courses. From there, I accepted a position as Assistant Curator of Flowering Plants in the Department of Botany at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago . Though this was a research position, I also taught plant courses on six occasions at the University of Chicago , the University of Illinois-Chicago , and College of DuPage . In August 1999, I came to Oshkosh to accept the position I now have here.

Teaching:

Delissea subcordata Campanulaceae, Gerald D. Carr.   As a botanist, I primarily teach courses about plants. Each Spring, I am responsible for all instruction in Biol 231, Biology of Plants and Microbes, our introductory botany course. Each Fall, I offer Biol 304/504 Plant Taxonomy, my area of expertise. Also in the Fall, I am one of several lectures for our introductory biology course, Biol 105 Biological Concepts–Unity. In the past, I have been involved in other courses, including Biol 111 Biology Orientation, Biol 337/537 Plant Anatomy, Biol 728 Graduate Seminar–Botany, and Biol 766 Advanced Topics.

In addition to my courses, I serve as Graduate Coordinator for the department, overseeing our graduate program, and as Curator of the Herbarium, responsible for our collection of over 115,000 prepared plant specimens from around the world.

Research:  My area of expertise within biology is plant systematics, which deals with the classification, naming, evolution, and biogeography. For the past two decades, my specific subject of interest has been the flowering plant family Campanulaceae (the bellflowers). This family includes 84 genera ( e.g. Campanula, Lobelia ) and over 2300 species, with representatives on six continents and many of the world's islands. Since 1986, I have published over 60 peer-reviewed articles on this family in a wide variety of scholarly journals and books. Lobelia gloria-mantis Campanulaceae F.R. Warshauer. Two recent publications are noteworthy. The first was the treatment of the Campanulaceae for The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants, edited by Klaus Kubitzki [ISBN: 978-3-540-31050-1]. The goal of this encyclopedic multi-volume work is to provide a comprehensive taxonomic treatment to the level of genus for all of the world's ferns, fern allies, and seed plants. The Campanulaceae treatment provides keys and descriptions for all 84 recognized genera, as well as detailed information on the morphology, anatomy, embryology, palynology, reproductive biology, phytochemistry, ecology, biogeography, paleobotany, classification, and economic value of the family. Shortly after this volume appeared, the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, England, published my book, World Checklist and Bibliography of Campanulaceae [ISBN: 978-1-84246-186-0]. This monograph will be a complete accounting of all 2400 species of the family, with full data on classification, nomenclature, geographic distribution, life form, and synonymy, together with an exhaustive bibliography.

Other selected publications:

Lammers, T. G. & C. E. Freeman. 1986. Ornithophily among the Hawaiian Lobelioideae (Campanulaceae): evidence from floral nectar sugar compositions. American Journal of Botany 73: 1613-1619.

Lammers, T. G. 1990. Campanulaceae. Pp. 420-489 in: Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai'i, by W. L. Wagner, D. R. Herbst & S. H. Sohmer. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.

Lammers, T. G. 1990. Sequential paedomorphosis among the endemic Hawaiian Lobelioideae (Campanulaceae). Taxon 39: 206-211.

Lammers, T. G. 1992. Circumscription and phylogeny of the Campanulales. Pp. 388-413 in: Phylogeny of Asteridae, ed. L. Hufford. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 79:207-445.

Lammers, T. G. 1993. Chromosome numbers of Campanulaceae. III. Review and integration of data for subfamily Lobelioideae. American Journal of Botany 80: 660-675.

Lammers, T. G., D. Kama & N. Morin. 1993. Campanulaceae. Pp. 310-326 in: Catalogue of the Flowering Plants and Gymnosperms of Peru by L. Brako and J. L. Zarruchi. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis.

Cosner, M. E., R. K. Jansen & T. G. Lammers. 1994. Phylogenetic relationships in the Campanulales based on rbcL sequences. Plant Systematics and Evolution 190: 79-95.

Lammers, T. G. 1994. Teaching introductory taxonomy: product or process? ASPT Newsletter 8(4): 15-17.

Lammers, T. G. 1995. Patterns of speciation and biogeography in the endemic Hawaiian genus Clermontia (Campanulaceae: Lobelioideae). Pp. 338-362 in: Hawaiian Biogeography: Evolution on a Hot Spot Archipelago, ed. W. L. Wagner and V. A. Funk. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.

Lammers, T. G. 1997. Phylogeny, biogeography, and systematics of the Wahlenbergia fernandeziana complex (Campanulaceae: Campanuloideae). Systematic Botany 21: 397-415.

Morris, K. E. & T. G. Lammers. 1997. Circumscription of Codonopsis and the allied genera Campanumoea and Leptocodon (Campanulaceae: Campanuloideae). I. Palynological data. Botanical Bulletin of Academia Sinica 38: 277-284.

Barnesky, A. L. & T. G. Lammers. 1997. Revision of the endemic Asian genus Peracarpa (Campanulaceae: Campanuloideae) via numerical phenetics. Botanical Bulletin of Academia Sinica 38: 49-56.

Thompson, S. W. & T. G. Lammers. 1997. Phenetic analysis of morphological variation in the Lobelia cardinalis complex (Campanulaceae: Lobelioideae). Systematic Botany 22: 315-331.

Lammers, T. G. 1998. Review of the Neotropical endemics Burmeistera, Centropogon, and Siphocampylus (Campanulaceae: Lobelioideae), with description of 18 new species and a new section. Brittonia 50: 233-262.

Lammers, T. G. 1998. A new subfamily of Campanulaceae. Novon 8: 36-37.

Lammers, T. G. 1998. Campanulaceae. Pp. 775-800, 1169-1171 in: Flora of Taiwan, ed. 2, vol. 4, ed. T. C. Huang. Editorial Committee of the Flora of Taiwan, Taipei.

Serra, L., M. B. Crespo & T. G. Lammers. 1999. Wimmerella, a new South African genus of Lobelioideae (Campanulaceae). Novon 9: 414-418.

Lammers, T. G. 1999. Plant systematics today: all our eggs in one basket? Systematic Botany 24:494-496.

Lammers, T. G. 2000. Revision of Lobelia sect. Tupa (Campanulaceae: Lobelioideae). Sida 19:87-110.

Buss, C. C., T. G. Lammers & R. R. Wise. 2001. Seed coat morphology and its systematic implications in Cyanea and other genera of Lobelioideae (Campanulaceae. American Journal of Botany 88: 1301-1308.

Lammers, T. G. 2001. Identification. Pp. 36-37 in: Plant Sciences for Students, vol. 3, ed. R. Robinson. Macmillan Reference USA , New York.

Lammers, T. G. 2002. Seventeen new species of Lobelioideae (Campanulaceae) from South America . Novon 12: 206-233.

Lammers, T. G. 2004. Five new species of the endemic Hawaiian genus Cyanea (Campanulaceae: Lobelioideae). Novon 14: 84-101.

Batterman, M. R. W. & T. G. Lammers. 2004. Branched foliar trichomes of Lobelioideae (Campanulaceae) and the infrageneric classification of Centropogon. Systematic Botany 29: 448-458.

Lammers, T. G. 2004. Revision of Lobelia sect. Homochilus (Campanulaceae: Lobelioideae). Sida 21: 591-623.

Lammers, T. G. 2004. Campanulaceae. Pp. 78-80 in: Flowering Plants of the Neotropics, ed. N. Smith, S. A. Mori, A. Henderson, D. W. Stevenson & S. V. Heald. Princeton University Press, Princeton.

Lammers, T. G. 2005. Campanulaceae. Pp. 216-218 in: A Tropical Garden Flora, by G. Staples & D. Herbst. Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu.

Lammers, T. G. 2005. Revision of Delissea (Campanulaceae-Lobelioideae). Systematic Botany, Monographs 73: 1-75.

León, B. & T. G. Lammers. 2006. Campanulaceae endémicas del Perú. *Revista Peruana  Biología  13 (2, Especial): 237-241.

Lammers, T.G. 2007. World Checklist and bibliography of Campanulaceae. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 675pp.

Lammers, T.G. 2007. Campanulaceae. pp 26-56; and Pentaphragmataceae, pp. 605-607 in: K. Kubitzki (ed.), The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants, vol. 8, Asteridae (ed. J.W. Kadereit & C.Jeffrey). Springer-Verlag, Berlin.

Lammers, T.G. 2007. Revision of Lobelia sect. GaleatellaJournal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (Campanulaceae: Lobelioideae).  1:789-810.