Dr. Esselman has studied several rare plants endemic to the Midwestern United States and has strong interests in rare plant conservation. Her work has included methods for examining levels of genetic diversity within and between populations and the reproductive biology of rare species. She is also interested in the factors of plant evolution, including hybridization, polyploidy and relationships between species.

Dr. Esselman has two students currently working in the lab, Bonnie Denother and Traci Bollinger. They are conducting electrophoretic diversity studies on the rare aster, Boltonia decurrens with Dr. Marian Smith, artificially hybridizing species of Impatiens and examining population dynamics of Jack-in-the-Pulpit on our campus.

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