Jessica Shand Happy, Sad, Curious, Scared . Which Are You? Children's Emotional Response to Musical Analysis of Spermatophyte Divergence to Expedite Identification of Novel Drug Candidates Plant pharmacology has long been utilized to subdue, and even alleviate, various medical conditions. This research hypothesized that evolutionary topologies could expedite drug discovery by genetically comparing plant species of known medical value with those of unknown medical value. Species of interest were Taxus brevifolia, Cephalotaxus hainanensis, and Taxus wallichiana (Taxaceae); Digitalis lanata (Plantaginaceae); and Cinchona calisaya and Galium odoratum (Rubiaceae). These have been natural precursors for, or natural providers of, compounds treating cancer, malaria, thrombosis, and other diseases. Taxa were selected to represent each genus within the families listed above, with inclusion based upon known medicinal use or otherwise data availability and recency. For the family Taxaceae, each species was included; for Plantaginaceae and Rubiaceae, one representative was chosen for every thirty species per genus. The genes used to analyze divergence were the maturase K, ribulose-1,5- bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase large subunit, and the NADH dehydrogenase F. Sequences were obtained from the GenBank® online database, aligned by MUSCLE, and phylogenetically analyzed with PAUP. Phylogenies examined both individual and concatenated matrices via heuristic searches with TBR branch swapping. Nodal support ranged from moderate to high; between 50% to 100% of bootstrap replicates supported any given monophyletic group. Retention and consistency indexes, calculated by Mesquite, evidenced little homoplasy and fairly parsimoniously informative characters. Homology existed between species with similar known medical use, suggesting that the phylogenies were fair indicators of medicinal value. Moreover, homology between species of unique known and unknown medical value suggested that several genera be further investigated for drug candidacy. .