FLORAS & CHECKLISTS
Borneo Floras
Borneo has some of the world's most spectacular fungi and one of
the richest orchid floras. Both these groups are covered in three
recent books by Kew staff. The Larger Fungi of Borneo, by Prof.
David Pegler (published by Natural History Publications, NHP,
Kota Kinabalu), is the first book written for the interested
public to illustrate, with full-colour photographs, some of the
larger fungi from the lowland rainforests of SE Asia. The third
volume of Orchids of Borneo, by Jeffrey Wood (published by the
Sabah Society and Bentham-Moxon Trust, Kew), includes accounts of
many showy orchids such as Paphiopedilum, Phalaenopsis,
Dendrobium and Dendrochilum. The text is
accompanied by fine line drawings and colour photographs. Lastly,
the Slipper Orchids of Borneo, by Dr Phillip Cribb (published by
NHP), covers the island's rich collection of Paphiopedium
species, over half of which are endemic and some desperately
rare. Tropical slipper orchids have the highest profile of any
tropical orchids. Fortunately some of the finest species are now
protected in national parks but the continuing destruction of the
forests give cause for concern about their future survival.
Phallus indusiatus
(pink form), one of the larger fungi from the Borneo rainforest.
Contact: Ted Brown (0181-332 5219)
Irian Jaya Checklist
A checklist of the flowering plants of N.E. Kepala Burung, Irian
Jaya, Indonesia, has recently been completed by Mark Coode, Sally
Hinchcliffe and Jill Marsden. This is one result of a project
funded by the John D. and Catherine T. Macarthur Foundation
carried out in collaboration with the Indonesian Academy of
Sciences (LIPI) and the Universitas Cenderawasih at Manokwari in
Irian Jaya. Kew had hoped to conduct much more fieldwork in the
area as part of the project but, unfortunately, Irian Jaya has
been out of bounds for overseas scientific teams since the
serious kidnap crisis of January 1996. As part of the project,
one of our colleagues from Indonesia, Rudi Maturbongs, a lecturer
in botany at the university in Manokwari, will be arriving in
early October to spend 6 months training in the Herbarium and
carrying out a research project on a complex of commercially
important rattan species.
Contact: Dr John Dransfield (0181-332 5225)
| • Volume 6 of Flora of Ethiopia including Orchids (by Dr Phillip Cribb and Sarah Thomas) and Zingiberaceae (by Dr Mike Lock) has been published. |
Madagascar Euphorbs
Dr Petra Hoffmann (former EU research fellow at Kew, currently at
Rijksherbarium Leiden) will take up a two-year grant funded by
the German Science Foundation 'Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft'
to study the phylogeny of Euphorbiaceae-Phyllanthoideae. She will
be based at Kew, but also spend a period of time in the Paris
Herbarium and six months of fieldwork in Madagascar.
Contact: Dr John Dransfield (0181-332 5225)
Kew's Botanical Liaison Officers
Kew hosts three Botanical Liaison Officer (BLO) positions which
are filled by botanists from South Africa, Australia and India.
BLOs work at Kew for a period of time and act as the formal
contact between the botanical community in their home country and
staff at Kew. A Malaysian BLO position is occasionally filled
depending on funding from the Tree Flora of Sabah and Sawarak
project.
Saskia Harris comes from the National
Herbarium in Pretoria. She has been the part-time South African
BLO since August 1996 (regretfully, funding for the full-time
post was abandoned in 1995). Her research interests include
'weedy' ruderals, phytogeography and a continuing interest in
Lobeliaceae and Asclepiadaceae. The Kew Herbarium and Library
hold rich taxonomic resources relating to South Africa and Saskia
responds to requests for information from the South African
research community and facilitates visits. She also assists staff
at Kew in matters South African.
Dr Ken Hill is a Senior Botanist at the
Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney and became the Australian BLO in
September 1997. His long interest is the genus Eucalyptus,
initially in collaboration with the late Lawrie Johnson. This
resulted in the splitting of Eucalyptus and the description of
the new segregate genus Corymbia in 1996. More recently he has
become interested in cycads and conifers through the Flora of
Australia project and intends to work on these groups at Kew,
using the Living Collections and furthering molecular studies on
cycads started in Australia.
Dr Sri Krishna Murti belongs to the
Botanical Survey of India and was previously posted in Dehradun,
Uttar Pradesh, before coming to Kew in 1995. He is currently
revising the genera Elatostema, Pilea, and Poa for the Flora of
India, having already revised Elaeocarpaceae for the Flora.
Previously he has co-authored or contributed to Floras of the
Bilaspur District (Central India), Jammu & Kashmir (Western
Himalaya) and Cold Desert (Ladak and Lahul Spiti). His liaison
work at Kew involves the exchange of information, literature and
material, and the identification of Indian plants.
Back to Front Page of this issue
Back to Kew Scientist Index Page
