#  William (Ned) Friedman 

Arnold Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology

Director of the Arnold Arboretum

Faculty Fellow of the Arnold Arboretum

Not Accepting Graduate Students for 2026-2027

 

 

 



   ![William Friedman smiling, with gray hair and glasses wearing a suit, in front of leafy trees](/sites/g/files/omnuum6811/files/styles/hwp_4_5__480x600/public/oeb/files/willian_friedman.jpg?itok=B398qjvG) 

 



 

 location\_on Weld Hill Research Building1300 Centre StreetBoston, MA 02131Harvard University Herbaria, 42322 Divinity AvenueCambridge, MA 02138 

 smartphone [617-384-7744](tel:617-384-7744) 

 email <ned@oeb.harvard.edu> 

 laptop\_windows [Friedman Lab](http://plantmorphology.org/) 

 

 



 

Faculty Support: [Amarilis Castro](/people/amarilis-castro)

My research focuses on the organismic interfaces between developmental, phylogenetic and evolutionary biology. Armed with hypotheses of relationships among clades, I seek to explore how patterns of morphology, anatomy and reproductive biology have evolved through the modification of developmental processes. My work is primarily focused on the origin and subsequent diversification of flowering plants, and in particular, the establishment of double fertilization and endosperm as defining biological features of angiosperms. In addition to my interest in evolutionary history, I continue to be fascinated by the history of evolutionary thought in the 18th and 19th centuries, leading up to the time of publication of *On the Origin of Species*.

**Recent Publications**

Suissa, J.S. and **W.E. Friedman**. 2022. Rapid diversification of vascular architecture underlies the Carboniferous fern radiation. *Proceedings of the Royal Society B* 289: 20212209.

Schoonderwoerd, K.M. and **W.E. Friedman.** 2022. Interspecific morphological variation in Juglandoideae resting bud organization – a winter’s tale? *Annals of Botany* 129: 679-695.

Povilus, R.A. and **W.E. Friedman**. 2022. Transcriptomes across fertilization and seed development in the water lily *Nymphaea thermarum* (Nymphaeales): evidence for epigenetic patterning during reproduction. *Plant Reproduction* 35: 161-178.

Suissa, J.S. and **W.E. Friedman**. 2021. From cells to stems: the effects of primary vascular construction on drought-induced embolism in fern rhizomes. *New Phytologist*: 232: 2238-2253.

Schoonderwoerd, K.M. and **W.E. Friedman.** 2021. Naked resting bud morphologies and their taxonomic and geographic distributions in temperate, woody floras. *New Phytologist* 232: 523-536.

**Friedman, W.E.** and P.K. Endress. 2020. Alexander Moritzi, a Swiss pre-Darwinian evolutionist. *Journal of the History of Biology* 53: 549-585.

**Friedman, W.E.** 2020. Darwin in the garden: Engaging the public about evolution with museum collections of living objects. *Plants, People, Planet* 2: 294-301.

Povilus, R.A., J.M. DaCosta, C. Grassa, P.R.V. Satyaki, M. Moeglein, J. Jaenisch, Z. Xi, S. Mathews, M. Gehring, C.C. Davis, and **W.E. Friedman**. 2020. Water lily (*Nymphaea thermarum*) genome reveals variable genomic signatures of ancient vascular cambium losses. *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences* 117: 8649-8656.

Povilus, R.A., P.K. Diggle and **W.E. Friedman**. 2018. Evidence for parent-of-origin effects and interparental conflict in seeds of an ancient flowering plant lineage. *Proceedings of the Royal Society B* 285; DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2017.2491.

**Courses Taught**

OEB 168R Sociobotany (co-taught with David Haig)  
OEB 386 Organismic and Evolutionary Plant Biology



 

 

 





 

 

- ## Building
    
     [Arnold Arboretum](/building/arnold-arboretum) [Herbaria](/building/huh) [Weld Hill](/building/weld-hill)
- ## Faculty Affiliation
    
     [The Arnold Arboretum](/faculty-affiliation/arnold-arboretum)
- ## Lab Group
    
     [Friedman Lab Members](/lab-group/friedman-lab)
- ## People
    
     [Faculty](/people/faculty) [Department Faculty](/people/department-faculty)
- ## Research Areas
    
     [Evolution](/research-areas/evolution) [Biodiversity &amp; Systematics](/research-areas/biodiversity-and-systematics)
- ## Search by Last Name
    
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