I love plants. Their form, function, evolution, and uses intrigue me. At heart, I am a plant systematist interested in the evolutionary processes and relationships of plants, especially parasitic plants. These are the cannibals of the plant world, plants that feed on other plants and best known to people in Virginia by the common mistletoe. Locally, a Ph.D. student is looking at the role of birds in the biology of mistletoe. Other parasites cause millions of dollars of damage and immeasurable suffering in some of the poorest parts of the world. This includes species of Striga (witchweeds) that I have researched extensively in the semi-arid tropics of Africa and Orobanche (broomrapes) in the Middle East. The past twenty years in South Africa and Namibia I have studied the strangest plant in the world, an angiosperm that spends its entire life underground-including subterranean flower!

While most of my research and publications are in the area of parasitic plants, current research centers on primitive fern-like plants, species of the genus Isoetes, known as quillworts. Isoetes is perhaps the least studied vascular plant in our flora. To address the complexity of this group, a Ph.D. student is using molecular techniques, including next gen sequencing, to develop a phylogeny of the group in the Southeast.

A third endeavor involves ethnobotanical research on plants mentioned in the Bible and the writings associated with the Prophet Mohamed (the Qur’an and the Hadith). I have published several books on plants of the Holy Scriptures. The Queen of Jordan, Rania Al-Abdullah, commissioned me to write Jordan in Bloom. Wildflowers of the Holy Land published in 2000 by the Jordan River Foundation. Figs, Dates, Laurel, and Myrrh: Plants of the Bible and Qur’an (2007, Timber Press) is a guide for the general public. In 2011 I published Dictionary of Bible Plants (Cambridge University Press) which is an in-depth survey of all the plants occurring in the Old Testament, New Testament, and Apocrypha. In addition, I produced two books on Bible plants translated into Dutch. Present research includes a survey of Southeast Asia plants mentioned in the Qur’an and Hadith including agarwood and camphor as well as collaborating with several botanical gardens that are developing collections of plants mentioned in the Holy Writings.

I also love teaching, the opportunity to share the excitement of plants with students. Most of my courses are field courses and I consider field instruction as my strongest teaching in such courses as Wetland Plants, Vascular Plant Families, Dendrology, and Field Ethnobotany. The latter reflects my long standing work with edible wild plants and a book with a former student (Musselman and Wiggins, Quick Guide to Edible Plants, Johns Hopkins University Press 2013).

In 1984 I established the Blackwater Ecologic Preserve, the northernmost stand of native longleaf, in Isle of Wight County, Virginia. The Preserve is 319 acres and is now an autonomous unit of the Zuni Pine Barrens State Natural Area that covers more than 1 000 acres. Regular prescribed burning has restored significant populations of very rare plants, some found nowhere else in the state. The site is also of archeological value as it contains perhaps the only tarkels and turpentine stumps, vestiges of the once extensive naval stores industry that was key in the development of maritime activities in Hampton Roads. The Preserve web site is http://ww2.odu.edu/~lmusselm/blackwater/