Stan Hudson Research Grants, awarded annually by MONPS, assist college and university students with funding for research projects relating to Missouri native plants. The grant program honors the late H. Stanton Hudson (1921-2002). This year, two students have been selected to receive awards:

Jordan Murray is a master’s student at Missouri State University. Her research project will investigate the phytoremediation potential of giant cane (Arundinaria gigantea) on lead-contaminated soils. Phytoremediation involves using plants to absorb and/or break down contaminants in the soil and water. Phytoremediation is cost-effective, requires little maintenance, does not result in any secondary pollution, and provides other ecological benefits like soil stabilization and habitat for animals. To be a good candidate for phytoremediation, a plant species should have high growth rates, high biomass accumulation, tolerance to contaminants, adaptability to environmental conditions, and be easy to cultivate and harvest. Giant cane is a species of temperate bamboo native to Missouri and 21 other states. It has dense rhizome networks and rapidly accumulates biomass, growing up to 8 meters in a single year. In this study Jordan will evaluate giant cane’s potential for phytoremediation by quantifying how effective it is at removing and sequestering lead from the soil and determining if giant cane sequesters lead primarily in its roots, pole, or leaves. She will also measure the physiological response of the plants to determine the level of lead tolerance.

Jordan received her bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Missouri State University where she did research on freshwater mussels. She has lived in southwest Missouri her whole life and spends a lot of time enjoying all the beautiful natural areas around her. “Ecological restoration and habitat conservation are really important to me, so the potential for my current research to do some good for the environment is very exciting to me.”

Elizabeth Martin is a senior biomedical sciences major at Missouri Southern State University. Her future plan is to attend medical school to eventually be able to help rural communities with access to medical care. “I have always loved plants and even started the MSSU Plant Club on my school’s campus which has played a part in starting the MSSU campus garden.”

Currently, the planet is undergoing a reduction in biodiversity, due to a variety of factors. Elizabeth’s research will address the need for monitoring plant populations by developing a pollen database for native plants of southwest Missouri as a reference collection. Pollen collection is a relatively easy way to passively sample and monitor plant populations. Pollen grains have unique morphological features that can be used to identify the plants from which they originated. One way that pollen can be collected is via pollen traps attached to honeybee hives. The first phase of Elizabeth’s research was the collection and identification of flowers from 85 unique species of plants, collected between June and October of 2024. The next phase will include the mounting and staining of pollen grains, followed by imagery collections, with projected completion in April 2025. Ideally, the first round of collections will be supplemented with an additional round, focused on early spring flowering plants (March-May) with final project completion by July 2025. Future projects will collect pollen from campus beehives, as well as from area beekeepers, as a way to monitor plant populations and to look for unidentified populations of rare native plants.