Laura Lagomarsino, PhD

@tropicalbotany

Botanist. Evolutionary biologist. Associate Professor and Herbarium Director, LSU 🐯. Passionate about plants 🌺, inclusive mentoring 👩‍🏫, and wooden jigsaw puzzles 🧩. Really into my doggo 🦮🌶️. Fulbright US Scholar 🇨🇴.

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Bluesky

Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir tropicalbotany.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· 7d

I’m so proud of @laufran.bsky.social for the #botany2026 Cooley Award from @amsocplanttaxon.bsky.social for work that began as an undergrad in the #LagoLab and continued as a collab during her PhD. She showed that introgression influenced trait evolution in my fave clade, Neotropical bellflowers.

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· 9d

Better late than never to compile the #botany2026 talks from research done in the #LagoLab! Check out talks by @laufran.bsky.social, Aislinn Mumford, and @evoyeyo.bsky.social tomorrow, and @laymonstera.bsky.social on Tuesday!

Poster with talks from the Lagomarsino Lab at LSU:

Lauren Frankel (former undergrad)
Introgression and trait evolution in the Neotropical bellflowers (Campanulaceae: Lobelioideae)
Monday at 8:45 in the Cooley Award Session
Tucson C-D

Aislinn Mumford
Evolution of Color in Palicourea, a Genus of Neotropical Flowering Plants
Monday at 11:30 in Ecology I
San Pedro 2

Dr. Diego Paredes-Burneo (former PhD student)
Rapid Diversification and Phylogenomic Conflict Across the Tropical Andean Flora
Monday at 2:15 in the Cooley Award Session
Tucson C-D

Laymon Ball
Clarifying species boundaries in a Neotropical complex: Hillia subgenus Hillia (Rubiaceae)
Tuesday at 11:15 in Systematics & Taxonomy
San Ignacio

Each talk has an image of the speaker to the left and their study system to the right. It's purple and gold.

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· 9d

My heart is full— I’m so grateful to be part of these brilliant scientists’ journeys into full realization of their capacity and career goals. They’re also just a really fun hang and my favorite group of people, the hands down best part of my job. #LagoLab #botany2026

Seven people of many backgrounds stand smiling in front of a painting of Frida Kahlo with gerbers daisies.
We all look pretty cute in our first-day-of-conference chic.

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· 9d

Just a little drink with #LagoLab alums @laymonstera.bsky.social and @evoyeyo.bsky.social to kick off #Botany2026

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· 12d

After seven fun, productive years as a #LagoLab PhD student, @laymonstera.bsky.social is off to a postdoc Berkeley with Sarah Kocher. I’m going to miss her but she’s so ready for her career ahead!! (We’d all be crying in this goodbye photo if we weren’t going to see her on Sunday at #botany2026 😅)

Four woman and one very hot yellow lab smile at the camera.

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· Jun 26

I’m catching up on Connections I missed over the last few days, and while my first attempt to guess the tricky purple category was wrong and not commonly selected, I stand by it 😅. Can you beat the AI bot and guess what my category was here? #nytconnections

Humpty Dumpty, Pink Floyd, Kool-Aid Man, and China are listed in different colored boxes, with 1% with a box around it indicating I guessed this set. Text below says “I didn’t create a description for this guess”, referring to the AI bot.

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· Jun 22

Um…

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· Jun 20

At least I’m in our nice little BTR art gallery.

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· Jun 20

Anyway, my flight was diverted to Lafayette (a city that barely has an airport!), and I’m on the fence about powering through to Atlanta tonight and trying to get on an early flight to Cleveland, or rebooking my whole trip tomorrow and missing meetings + opening reception. Stay tuned…!

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· Jun 12

Completing this research gifted Diego a wealth of bioinformatic skills, a deeper understanding of his study system, and so, so much character-building patience. This was not easy data to parse out and understand, but Diego did it! 💪

Diego with his PhD diploma in hold, both of us in silly academic regalia gowns, his purple with pelicans (PURPLE WITH PELICANS!!) and mind boring red with a blue leaf detail.

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· Apr 22

I'll be speaking at the International Conference of the German Society for Plant Sciences this September. Join us! Registration ends on April 30. botanik-tagung.de

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· Apr 11

Huh, somehow I didn’t realize that I am one summer roadtrip and one Delaware away from visiting all US states. Apparently I’m not drawn to the plains states or the Rockies…

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· Mar 20

Talk about stepping out of my comfort zone: I gave a Spanish language talk in a stats and probability school today. It went well! I can do hard things, as long as @roszenil.bsky.social is my cheerleader & with a gorgeous backdrop of Guanajuato. (The stats part was 1000x harder than Spanish part…)

Very geometric shadows of sunlight shining through a terrace on a terra cotta building. The sky is impossibly blue with perfect white clouds and there’s a palm tree in the midground, mountains in the background.

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· Mar 13

I was pretty consistent on old phone vs. shiny new monitor, but both probably have pretty good screens.

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· Mar 12

I did my #TenMinuteMerlin! I concentrated on the parula, cause I particularly don’t know that one’s deal yet. But you can see why my backyard got me into noticing birds.

Merlin results with orange-crowned warbler, house finch, white-throated sparrow, yellow-rumped warbler, tufted titmouse, and downy woodpecker

Merlin results with downy woodpecker, northern parula, blue-gray gnatcatcher, Carolina wren, cedar waxwing, and northern cardinals.

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· Mar 12

Oh, you would hate how I’m approaching my new watercolor hobby and I’m not even kidding lol…

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· Feb 3

Welcome Dr. Laymon Ball into the world! @laymonstera.bsky.social rocked her PhD defense today.

Six people raise their glasses at a restaurant.

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· Feb 2

My student @laymonstera.bsky.social is defending her @lsubiosci.bsky.social @lsuscience.bsky.social PhD thesis today! If you're at LSU, join us in LSA A101 at 1pm for Laymon's talk: "Disentangling Mechanisms of Speciation in a Florally Diverse Neotropical Plant Clade, Hillieae (Rubiaceae)".

Laymon holds a bouquet and smiles in front of Tiger Stadium with a large LSU sign in the background.

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· Feb 1

Yay! Love to see it (even when I’d also rather not have an AI summary at the top of my searches). Honored that this famous botanist is on the road to Baton Rouge now, to be at my student’s defense tomorrow! Here I am with Charlotte in front of a buttonbush at the cafe your friend started in STL 😃!

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· Jan 17

Rocoto’s heart is also full (and his belly full of treats) after getting to spend time with his favorite people (and very specifically @evoyeyo.bsky.social and @ixchelgr.bsky.social).

Dog stares up at Diego trying to convince him to give him food

Rocoto stares soulfully into Ixchel’s gaze, she’s holding champagne

Rocoto can’t control his excitement saying goodbye to Ixchel and Carrie

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· Jan 17

Life has been an absolute whirlwind for me for the last 10 days with #SSB2026 and associated meetings in Baton Rouge. But my heart has been so full, sharing my home with some of my very favorite people 💛💜. Looking forward to a calm weekend though…

A bunch of people sit at a table with two king cakes in the front

Two tall men and a short woman pose on a boardwalk in a swamp

A woman smiled while holding the king cake baby she found. A dog in the corner looks hungry.

The Andes Grant crew after a meeting in an herbarium

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· Jan 16

Apparently I'm the Director of a 3-star herbarium?

Screenshot of Google's summary of the herbarium, with a picture of our building and a map showing our location. Text says, "Shirley C. Tucker Herbarium; 3 stars, 2 Google reviews. Research institute in Baton Rouge, Louisiana"

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· Jan 14

So, @tribblelab.bsky.social, @jesusgm.bsky.social and I (with Tanya!) have been up to conference shenanigans since at least 2018, when we stole the inflatable cactus marking the next year's meeting in Tucson and ran around the Rochester, MN conference center with after the ASPT banquet. #botany2018

Carrie, Tanya, Jesus, and Laura declare victory around an inflatable cactus with a pink flower.

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· Jan 12

Had one this week. So good!!! Their traditional is better than most too.

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· Jan 11

I went to the club in the city I’ve lived in for 8.5 years for the first time tonight- thanks, #SSB2026! With @jesusgm.bsky.social and @tribblelab.bsky.social

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· Jan 10

Happy #SSB2026 from the #LagoLab and #ZeFeLab, descendants & friends! @tribblelab.bsky.social @laymonstera.bsky.social @racheljabaily.bsky.social @oschwery.bsky.social @evoyeyo.bsky.social @nicolas-cr.bsky.social @justkathe.bsky.social @laufran.bsky.social @ixchelgr.bsky.social @roszenil.bsky.social

Bunch of people smile at a table with two king cakes in the front and a yellow lab smiling at the camera.

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· Jan 8

A fun fact unrelated to the conference: Raising Cane’s was named for a yellow lab, and my yellow lab Rocoto saw the same vet as Cane did up until Dr. Hackett retired a few years ago!

A collage of photos of a strapping yellow lab- he’s holding a duck in one, wearing sunglasses and a cap in another, tennis gear in a third, and REALLY BIG sunglasses in the last.

A strapping yellow lab stares at the camera. I may or may not have been holding a treat when this photo was taken.

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· Jan 8

Fun fact for #SSB2026: the original Raising Cane’s- the mothership- is in Baton Rouge, right next to the LSU campus. Come for science and community, and stick around for chicken fingers!

Orlando, Edison, me, Rosana and Nico smile in a wood paneled restaurant holding red Raising Canes cups.

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· Jan 7

My Mardi Gras season has begun! My #SSB2026 has begun! My Mardi Gras SSB season jams begun! #LaissezLesBonsTempsRouler with @roszenil.bsky.social @nicolas-cr.bsky.social #LagoLab #ZeFeLab

Laura, Rosana, Nico, Edison and Daniel enjoy the afterglow of eating tacos outside. Nico and Edison have glowing Mardi Gras beads on.

Laura Lagomarsino, PhD@tropicalbotany· Dec 25

Botanists x word nerds having fun with today’s NYT Connections: Things associated with angiosperms: flowers, Solti. Things associated with Florida: retire, melodramatic, Solti. Things that famously come in pairs: musical notes, cherry, Solti. (Alas! None the correct answer.)