I developed a expertise in phylogenetics and classification of Australian plants, particularly the pea-flowered legumes, revising (with collaborators) the large genera Daviesia, Gastrolobium, Gompholobium and Jacksonia. More recently, my broad knowledge of the Australian flora has led me to address questions such as: How is biodiversity distributed in space and what factors limit distribution? How have species and their traits diversified through time and what are the drivers? By constructing molecular phylogenies and dating the divergences between lineages, we have detected the signatures of ancient shifts in the rates of speciation and extinction, and of evolutionary change in their traits. We have discovered how climatic change has driven the course of evolution in multiple plant lineages, creating biodiversity hotspots such as in southwestern Australia.