from From Phys.org:
There are at least 60,000 identified tree species in the world, “but we know next to nothing about how they got here,” Elizabeth Stacy says. “Trees form the backbone of our forests, and are ecologically and economically important, yet we don’t know much about how speciation happens in trees.”
Speciation, the evolutionary process by which new biological species arise, fascinates Stacy, an associate professor of biology at the University of Hawaii Hilo, and forms the core of her research. The National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded scientist is focusing on the origins of the many forms of Metrosideros, a diverse genus of forest trees, and on one of its species in particular—Hawaii’s M. polymorpha—as a model for studying diversification. More.
Speciation is not very well understood at all, anywhere; it is rather colonized by Darwin’s followers, as a support for their vision of life.
Hat tip: Phillip Cunningham