Klitgård, Bente B.
Job TitleSenior Research Botanist & Assistant Curator
DepartmentHerbarium, Library, Art & Archives
SectionRegional Teams
Science Teams:
Joined Kew: 2008
Foreign Language(s): Danish (mother tongue), English (fluent), Spanish (fluent), Portuguese (working), German (understand), French (understand).
Qualifications & Appointments
Bifag (BSc equivalent), Biology, Univ. of Aarhus, Denmark, 1985.
Cand. Scient. (MSc equivalent), Bioloby, Univ. of Aarhus, Denmark, 1990.
PhD, Univ. of Aarhus, 1995.
Marie Curie Research Fellow (Kew) (1993–1995).
Honorary Research Associate (Kew) (1998–1999).
Director's Research Assistant (Kew) (1999–2001).
Honorary Research Associate (Kew) (2001–2008).
IUCN-SSC, Tropical Tree Specialist Group (1999–).
Systematic Botany - Associate Editor (2010–).
Systematics Association - SRF Awards Secretary (2010–).
Nordic Phylogenetics Network, founding committee member (1992–2001).
Elected member of the board of education, Institute of Biological Sciences, AU (1984–1985); 1985 as vice chair.
Founding member of Nepenthes (Danish foundation for the protection of tropical rain forests) (1982–1993) 1990–93 editor of the journal Regnskov published quarterly.
Role
Vegetation surveys and conservation assessments in tropical America; systematic, taxonomic and floristic and legume research; science communication; managing team’s curatorial responsibilities.
Bente Bang Klitgård has a broad botanical background, is trained in most botanical technical skills and methods and has more than 25 years experience in multidisciplinary botanical research, science communication, and herbarium management and curation.
Taxonomic research projects are largely focussed on the Legume (Leguminosae/Fabaceae) and Mint families (Lamiaceae) and have spanned: field botany, collections-based taxonomy and floristics, species conservation assessment, and ethnobotany. She also has a keen interest in the application of micromorphological characters to solve systematic questions. In this field projects include palynology, floral development and evolution, and molecular and morphological systematics.
Recently more research is being dedicated to her early passion for forest conservation and management in Latin America, where she has led two vegetation surveys in Ecuador and participated in surveys and habitat assessments in Bolivia and Brazil. More projects are being planned and developed in this area.
Science Communication, broadly defined, including university lecturing, is one of Bente’s main interests. And, she enjoys teaching, supervising student theses, engaging the public at Kew, outreach to schools and societies, and not least botanical capacity building in Latin America. At Kew, she is currently leading on an international, collaborative project which develops electronic identification tools for Neotropical flowering plants (see Neotropikey); teaches on the Kew Diploma course in Tropical Plant Families; and was recently involved in Kew’s chocolate-themed Easter Festival.
Bente is also an assistant curator at Kew, where she is managing the Tropical America team’s curatorial and plant identification responsibilities.
Projects
- Community botany in the Amazon
- The Dalbergioid Legumes (Leguminosae: Papilionoideae)
- Evolution of flowers and inflorescences in Leguminosae
- Neotropikey
- Major Latin American Floras
- New World Lamiaceae
- Plant Diversity and Conservation in Bolivia
- Pollen of Polygalaceae
(project completed 2008) - Restoring forests and ecosystem services in the Amazon
- Tropical Plant Families: An Identification Handbook
- Lista do Brasil
- Toucan Cipó
Selected Recent Publications
Milliken, W., Klitgård, B. B. & Baracat, A. (eds) (2010). Neotropikey – Interactive key and information resources for flowering plants of the Neotropics. www.kew.org/neotropikey (accessed June 30th, 2011).
Klitgård, B. B. (2010). Brownea, Browneopsis, Centrolobium, Platymiscium. In: Forzza, R. et al. (eds) Lista de Espécies da Flora do Brasil. Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro. (http://floradobrasil.jbrj.gov.br/2010/FB022840).
Pennington, R. T., Lavin, M., Särkinen, T., Lewis, G. P., Klitgård, B. B. & Hughes, C. E. (2010). Contrasting plant diversification histories within the Andean biodiversity hotspot. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 107(31): 13783 – 13787.
Mendoza, M., Klitgård, B. B., Milliken, W., Garvizu, M., Muñoz, M., Zappi, D. & Biggs, N. (2009). Vegetación del Jardín de Cactáceas de Bolivia. RBG, Kew. (Report).
Pirie, M. D., Klitgård, B. B. & Pennington, R. T. (2009). Revision and biogeography of Centrolobium (Leguminosae - Papilionoideae). Syst. Bot. 34(2): 345 – 359.
Prenner, G. and Klitgård, B. B. (2008). Towards unlocking the deep nodes of Leguminosae: Floral development and morphology of the enigmatic Duparquetia orchidacea (Leguminosae, Caesalpinioideae). Amer. J. Bot. 95(11): 1349 – 1365.
Saslis-Lagoudakis, C., Chase, M.W., Robinson, D.N., Russell, S.J. and Klitgård, B. B. (2008). Phylogenetics of neotropical Platymiscium (Leguminosae: Dalbergieae): systematics, divergence times, and biogeography inferred from nuclear ribosomal and plastid DNA sequence data. Amer. J. Bot. 95(10): 1270 – 1286.
Klitgård, B. B. (2007). Three new species of Salvia subgenus Calosphace (Lamiaceae) from Mesoamerica. Novon 17(2): 206 – 211.
Lewis, G. P., Klitgård, B. B. & Schrire, B. D. (2006). Seasonally dry forests of southern Ecuador: insights from legumes. In: R. T. Pennington, G. P. Lewis & R. A. Ratter (eds), Neotropical savannas and seasonally dry forests – plant diversity, biogeography, and conservation. Taylor & Francis, CRC Press, Oxford, pp. 281 – 314.
Lozano, P. & Klitgård, B. B. (2006). The genus Machaerium (Leguminosae: Dalbergieae) in Ecuador. Brittonia 58(2): 124 – 150.
Selected Earlier Publications
Klitgård, B. B. (2005). Platymiscium (Leguminosae: Dalbergieae): biogeography, morphology, taxonomy and uses. Kew Bull. 60(3): 321 – 400.
Klitgård, B. B. & Lavin, M. (2005). Dalbergieae s.l. In: G. Lewis, B. Schrire, M. Lock & B. Mackinder (eds), Legumes of the World. pp. 307 – 335. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Klitgård, B. B. & A. Bruneau (eds). (2003). Higher Level Systematics. Advances in Legume Systematics, Vol. 10. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Lewis, G. P. & Klitgård, B. B. (2002). Leguminosas del sur de Ecuador. In: Z. Aguirre M., J. E. Madsen, E. Cotton & H. Balslev (eds). Botánica Austroecuatoriana — Estudios sobre los recursos vegetales en las provincias de El Oro, Loja y Zamora-Chinchipe. pp. 185 – 224. Abya Yala, Quito.
Lavin, M., Pennington, R. T., Klitgård, B. B., Sprent, J., de Lima, H. C. & Gasson, P. (2001). The Dalbergioid legumes (Fabaceae): Delimitation of a pantropical monophyletic clade. Amer. J. Bot. 88(3): 503 – 533.
Pennington, T., Klitgård, B. B., Ireland, H. & Lavin, M. (2000). New insights into floral evolution of basal Papilionoideae from molecular phylogenies. In: P. S. Herendeen & A. Bruneau (eds), Advances in Legume Systematics, Vol. 9. pp. 233 – 248. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Klitgård, B. B. (1999). Floral ontogeny in tribe Dalbergieae (Leguminosae: Papilionoideae): Dalbergia brasiliensis, Machaerium villosum s.l., Platymiscium floribundum, and Pterocarpus rotundifolius. Pl. Syst. & Evol. 219: 1 – 25.
Espinosa, R. 1948/1949. 2nd rev. ed. by B. B. Klitgård (1997). Estudios botánicos en el sur del Ecuador. Gráficas COSMOS, Loja, Ecuador.
