Dwayne Estes

Dwayne Estes serves as Full Professor of Biology, Principal Investigator for the Center of Excellence for Field Biology, and Executive Director of the Southeastern Grasslands Institute (SGI). Dwayne’s research interests include the flora, ecology, history, and biogeography of the Southeastern U.S. with emphasis on grasslands and discovery of new plant species. He has published 20+ publications and co-authored the Guide to the Vascular Plants of Tennessee published in 2015 by the University of Tennessee Press.

He enjoys mentoring his graduate students.  In the past several years he and his collaborators have been awarded two grants from the National Science Foundation to help build and enhance natural history collections at 365bet. In January 2018 he co-founded SGI. Under his leadership, SGI has secured more than $5 million in funding and has grown to a team of more than 20 people. He has been active in building diverse support for Southeastern US grasslands conservation, including bringing together philanthropists, government agencies, non-profits, corporate and small-business partners, private landowners and ranchers, historians, educators, and citizen scientists.

Botanical Diversity, Plant Ecology

Noss, R.F., Cartwright, J.M., Estes, D., Witsell, T., Elliott, G., Adams, D., Albrecht, M., Boyles, R., Comer, P., Doffitt, C. and Faber‐Langendoen, D., Hill, J., Hunter, W.C., Knapp, W.M., Marshall, M.E., Singhurst J., Tracey C., Walck J., and Weakley, A. (2021) Improving species status assessments under the US Endangered Species Act and implications for multispecies conservation challenges worldwide. Conservation Biology 2021: 1-10.

Noss, R.F., Cartwright, J.M., Estes, D., Witsell, T., Elliott, K.G., Adams, D.S., Albrecht, M.A., Boyles, R., Comer, P.J., Doffitt, C. and Faber-Langdoen, D., Hill, J., Hunter, W.C., Knapp, W.M., Marshall, M.E., Singhurst J., Tracey C., Walck J., and Weakley, A.  2021. Science needs of southeastern grassland species of conservation concern: A framework for species status assessments.  U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2021–1047, 58 p.

Tennessee Flora Committee (eds. E.W. Chester, B.E. Wofford, J. Shaw, D. Estes, and D.H. Webb).
2015. Guide to the Vascular Flora of Tennessee. The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville. 813 pp.

Estes, D. 2013.Carex fumosimontana (Cyperaceae sect. Phacocystis), a new endemic from the Great
Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina and Tennessee. Brittonia 65: 200-207.

Estes, D. 2012. Penstemon kralii (Plantaginaceae), a new species from Alabama and Tennessee, with an
updated key to the southeastern U.S. taxa. Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas 6:1-8.

Estes, D. and J. Beck. 2011. A new species of Polymnia (Asteraceae: Tribe Polymnieae) from
Tennessee. Systematic Botany 36: 481-486.

E.W. Chester, B.E. Wofford, D. Estes, and C.J. Bailey Jr. 2009. A fifth checklist of Tennessee vascular
plants. Sida Botanical Miscellany No. 31. Botanical Research Institute of Texas, Fort Worth. 102 pp.

Estes, D. and R.L. Small. 2008. Phylogenetic relationships of the monotypic genus Amphianthus
(Plantaginaceae tribe Gratioleae) inferred from chloroplast DNA sequences. Systematic Botany 33: 176-
182.

Estes, D. and R.L. Small. 2007. Two new species of Gratiola (Plantaginaceae) from eastern North
America and an updated circumscription for Gratiola neglecta. J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 1: 149–170.

Fritsch, P.W., F. Almeda, A.B. Martins, B.C. Cruz, and †D. Estes. 2007. Rediscovery and
phylogenetic placement of Philcoxia minensis (Plantaginaceae), with a test of carnivory. Proceedings
of the California Acad. of Sciences 58: 447–467.

Estes, D. 2006. A new narrowly endemic species of Clematis (Ranunculaceae subgenus Viorna) from
northeastern Texas. Sida 22: 65–77.

Estes, L.D. and J.L. Walck. 2005. The vascular flora of Rattlesnake Falls, a potential state natural area
on the Western Highland Rim Escarpment in Tennessee. Sida 21: 1753–1780.

Estes, L.D. and J.L. Walck. 2005. The vascular flora of Rattlesnake Falls, a potential state natural area
on the Western Highland Rim Escarpment in Tennessee. Sida 21: 1753–1780.