Northern Arizona University received a two-year $194,093 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation Division of Environmental Biology under the Biological Sciences federal grant program (CFDA 47.074). The university will conduct research to reconstruct the evolutionary relationships of Lobelia plant species endemic to the mountain ranges of Mexico, known as the Mexican Transition Zone, in order to investigate how the species are related to each other and to species in other parts of North and South America. Graduate and undergraduate students, including from underserved backgrounds, will be trained in molecular techniques and museum studies. The research aims to strengthen international collaborations and will incorporate discoveries into courses at Northern Arizona University. Molecular data from chloroplast genomes and a nuclear probe set will be used to build a comprehensive phylogenetic framework for the Lobelia genus focusing on the highly diverse and endemic lineages in Mexico. This framework will be applied to answer questions about biogeography, pollinator shifts, and hybridization. Revisionary work will include descriptions, images, and an interactive web key to all Lobelia species in Mexico and Central America serving as a resource.