Nesbitt, Mark
Job TitleEconomic Botany Manager
DepartmentHerbarium, Library, Art & Archives
SectionBiodiversity, Information & Economic Botany
Science Teams:
Joined Kew: 1999
Qualifications & Appointments
BSc, Agricultural Botany, Univ. Reading, 1983.
MSc, Bioarchaeology, Univ. London, 1984.
PhD, Univ. College London, 1997.
Editorial Board, Turkish Journal of Botany.
Editorial Board, Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine.
Committee, European Chapter, Society for Economic Botany.
Honorary Senior Lecturer, Institute of Archaeology, UCL.
Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Anthropology, University of Kent.
Role
Curation of and research into the Economic Botany Collection; ethnobotany education; taxonomy of useful plants; seed-morphology; public enquiries.
Curation of the Economic Botany Collection (EBC), including acquisition of new specimens, collection maintenance, liasion with conservators, and hosting research visitors and tours.Research into the EBC, particularly for materia medica (e.g. Cinchona) and fibres, including papermaking, textiles and basketry. Joint organization and teaching of the Kent-Kew MSc in Ethnobotany, and responding to public and external research enquiries regarding useful and poisonous plants. Advice is also given to other staff at Kew on economic botany, particularly aspects of history, taxonomy, seeds and cereals.
Selected Recent Publications
Brennan, E. & Nesbitt, M. (2010-11). Is Jamaican lace-bark (Lagetta lagetto) a sustainable material? Text: for the Study of Textile Art, Design and History 38:17-23.
Nesbitt, M., McBurney, R.P.H., Broin, M. & Beentje, H.J. (2010). Linking biodiversity, food and nutrition: The importance of plant identification and nomenclature. Journal of Food Composition and Analysis 23: 486-498.
Nesbitt, M., Prosser, R. & Williams, I. (2010). Rice-paper plant - Tetrapanax papyrifer. Curtis's Botanical Magazine 27: 71-92.
Nesbitt, M., Simpson, S.J. & Svanberg, I. (2010). History of rice in Western and Central Asia. In Sharma, S.D. (ed.) Rice: origin, antiquity and history. Enfield: NH, Science Publishers. 308-340, 535-541.
Nesbitt, M. (2006). Identification guide for Near Eastern grass seeds. London: Institute of Archaeology, University College London.
Selected Earlier Publications
Prance, G. & Nesbitt, M. (eds) (2005). The cultural history of plants. New York: Routledge.
Nesbitt, M. (2005). Grains. In Prance, G. & Nesbitt, M. (eds) The cultural history of plants. New York: Routledge. 45-60.
Edwards, H. G. M., de Oliveira, L. F. C. & Nesbitt, M. (2003). Fourier-transform Raman characterization of brazilwood trees and substitutes. The Analyst 128:82-87.
Nesbitt, M., Colledge, S. & Murray, M. A. (2003). Organisation and management of seed reference collections. Environmental Archaeology 8: 77-84.
Nesbitt, M. (2001). Wheat evolution: integrating archaeological and biological Evidence. In Caligari, P. D. S. & Brandham, P. E. (eds). Wheat taxonomy: the legacy of John Percival, vol. 3, Linnean, Special Issue. London: Linnean Society. 37-59.
