Cheek, Martin R.
Job Title
Head, Wet Tropics Africa team
Department
Herbarium, Library, Art & Archives
Section
Regional Teams
Science Teams:
Joined Kew:
1987Foreign Language(s):
French (African variety)Qualifications & Appointments
BSc (Hons), Univ. Reading, 1981
MSc, Univ. Reading, 1983
DPhil, Univ. Oxford, 1989.
Chair, cross-Departmental team for Wet Tropics Africa
Scientific and Horticultural Publications Committee (RBG Kew).
Role
Surveys & red-listing for conservation management in Wet Tropics Africa; revising/ describing taxa in Malvales, Nepenthaceae, African saprophytes, Rubiaceae etc.
Main research activity has been collaborative total vascular plant species surveys of areas of interest in the Wet Tropics of Africa, mainly Cameroon. These surveys have provided the data for conservation management, often in the form of ‘Conservation Checklists', published as books which include Red data assessments. Revisionary and floristic work has concentrated on Malvales, especially the ‘Flora of Tropical East Africa' account for Sterculiaceae (with L. Dorr, US) and an ongoing monograph of Cola. Other groups of African wet forest plants, where specialist assistance has been scarce or unavailable in preparing conservation checklist accounts, have also been studied. These have been mainly Rubiaceae (especially Psychotria), mycoheterotrophs (saprophytes), but also Sapindaceae, Rutaceae, Flacourtiaceae, Podostemaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Ancistrocladaceae, Scytopetalaceae and Vochysiaceae, for example. Activity in the systematics of carnivorous plant groups, such as Nepenthaceae, has continued.
Projects
- African Inga
- The Plants of Bali Ngemba Forest Reserve, Cameroon: A Conservation Checklist
- Co-Evolution at the Plant-Animal Interface
(project completed 2010) - Congo (Brazzaville): Surveys and Capacity Building
- Dom, Bamenda Highlands Phase 2: reducing forest fragmentation and protecting what remains
- Ebo Forest Conservation Checklist
- Flora of China
- Flora Zambesiaca
- Guinea (Conakry): Developing botanical capacity, a National Herbarium and Red Data book
- HOTSPOTS - understanding and conserving the Earth's biodiversity hotspots - COMPLETED 2009
- The Plants of Kupe, Mwanenguba and the Bakossi Mountains, Cameroon: A Conservation Checklist
- Liberia GIS: National Plant Conservation Prioritisation
- Limbe Botanic Gardens, Cameroon: Search and Rescue of the Threatened Species of Mount Cameroon
- The Plants of Mefou Proposed National Park, Yaoundé, Cameroon: A Conservation Checklist
- Monograph of Octoknema (Octoknemaceae-Olacaceae)
- Monograph of Nepenthaceae
- Orientale DRC: surveys and capacity building
- Poroid fungi from Korup National Park, Cameroon - COMPLETED 2006
- Publication of 2003 AETFAT proceedings
(project completed 2006) - Red Data Book & Teachers' Guide, Cameroon
- Rubiaceae of Africa
- Systematics of Dioscoreales
- The Plants of Dom, Bamenda Highlands, Cameroon: A Conservation Checklist
- The Plants of Lebialem Highlands, Cameroon: A Conservation Checklist.
Selected Recent Publications
Onana, J.-M & Cheek, M. (2011). The Red Data Book of the Flowering Plants of Cameroon. Pp. 578. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Cheek, M., Harvey, Y. & Onana, J.-M. (2010). The Plants of Dom, Bamenda Highlands, Cameroon: A Conservation Checklist. Pp. 162. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Cheek, M., Corcoran, M. & Horwath, A. (2008). Four new species of Psychotria (Rubiaceae) with bacterial nodules from Western Cameroon. Kew Bull. 63: 405-418.
Cheek, M. & Etuge, M. (2009). Allophylus conraui (Sapindaceae) reassessed and Allophylus ujori described from Western Cameroon. Kew Bull. 64(3): 495-502.
Cheek, M. (2009). Mussaenda epiphytica sp. nov. and epiphytic shrub from cloud forest of the Bakossi Mts, Cameroon. Nordic J. Bot. 27(6): 456-459.
Selected Earlier Publications
Cheek, M. & Jebb, M. (2001). Nepenthaceae. Flora Malesiana 15: 1-161.
Litt, A. & Cheek, M. (2002). Korupodendron songweanum, a new genus of Vochysiaceae from West-central Africa. Brittonia 54(1): 13-17.
Cheek, M. & Csiba, L. (2002). A revision of the Psychotria chalconeura complex (Rubiaceae) in Guineo-Congolian Africa. Kew Bull. 57: 375-387.
Cheek, M. (2004). Kupeaeae, a new tribe of Triuridaceae from Africa. Kew Bull. 58: 939-949.
Cheek, M., Pollard, B. J., Darbyshire, I., Onana, J.-M. & C. Wild, C. (2004). The Plants of Kupe, Mwanenguba and the Bakossi Mts, Cameroon. A Conservation Checklist. Kew: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Pp 508.
- Cheek, M. (1990). Systematic seed anatomy of the Turraeeae (Meliaceae): taxonomic and ecological aspects. Mitt. Inst. Allg. Bot. Hamburg 23b: 683-706.
- Cheek, M. & Rakotozafy, A. (1991). The identity of Leroy's fifth subfamily of the Meliaceae, and a new combination in Commiphora (Burseraceae). Taxon 40: 231-237.
- Cable, S. & Cheek, M. (1998). The Plants of Mount Cameroon. A Conservation Checklist. Kew: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Pp 279.
- Cheek, M. & Williams, S. (2000). A Review of African Saprophytic Flowering Plants. In Timberlake & Kativu (eds) African Plants. Biodiversity, Taxonomy & Uses. Proc. 15th AETFAT Congress, Harare, Zimbabwe. Kew: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 39-49.
- Cheek, M. (2000). A synoptic revision of Ancistrocladus (Ancistrocladaceae) in Africa, with a new species from western Cameroon. Kew Bull. 55: 871-882.
