The conquest of land by plants over 450 million years ago was one of the most significant events in our planet's history, and was underpinned by a series of key innovations in plant architecture during evolution.

Our group aims to identify the developmental and genetic basis of two such innovations- three dimensional shoot growth and branching- in a range of model systems representing different stages of plant evolution.

More generally, we are interested in how plant shape arises by development, and wish to transfer knowledge from our model systems to flowering plants to design new shapes and improve productivity.