Soreng's principal interest is in grasses (fam. Poaceae), and he specializes in the taxonomy of cool season grasses (Pooideae), particularly the genus Poa (over 600 species world-wide) and allied genera. Having spent 8 years conducting molecular research on relationships among grasses at family, subfamily, tribal and genus levels, he now devotes time to the study these plants in the herbarium and the field, while continuing to collaborate with colleagues on molecular studies. He has collected in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Ecuador, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lesotho, Kyrgyz Republic, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Turkey, and the USA. Poa possibly has the most variation in breeding systems of any genus of plants, and he studies this variation to better assess the nature of species in this genus. Soreng also specializes in grass nomenclature and helps to maintain and update the grass data in TROPICOS (Missouri Botanical\. Garden's. taxonomic database), and serves on the IAPT Nomenclature Committee for Vascular Plants.

Positions

• Member and past President, Botanical Society of Washington 1993 - 2026
• Member and past President, Washington Biologists' Field Club 2004 - 2026
• Member Nomenclature Committee for Vascular Plants, International Association for Plant Taxonomy 2015 - 2026

Research Areas

• Plants--Classification

Geographic Focus

• World  Continent