Wearn, James

Job Title

Research Assistant to the Keeper

Department

Herbarium, Library, Art & Archives

Section

Science Teams:

Joined Kew: 2008

Foreign Language(s): Spanish (basic)

Qualifications & Appointments

BSc (Hons), Univ. London (2002)
PhD, Univ. London (2006)
Elected Recorder of Lichens, Berkshire, England (2008 – present)
Fellow of the Linnean Society of London (2010)
Gunnersbury Triangle Nature Reserve Steering Group, London (2010 – present)
 

Role

 

Responsibilities include systematic research in Southeast Asia, coordination of the international Vascular Plant Classification Committee (VPCC), and supporting HLAA Directorate strategic planning.


My main activity is botanical research (ecological and taxonomic), currently focusing on Lamiaceae, Meliaceae and Rutaceae. Since starting at Kew, my principal research project has been the preparation of a revision of the large and previously confused genus Clerodendrum for Flora Malesiana (now almost completed). This project is being undertaken with Prof. David Mabberley, and from it a number of additional lines of enquiry have arisen, allowing research on the genus to be taken further within Asia. I am also working on an account of naturalised Citrus taxa for the Flora of North America and I am a collaborator on a phylogenetic Dysoxylum project, which is being led by Dr Alexandra Muellner at the Senckenberg Research Institute, Germany.


I am the Secretary of the international Vascular Plant Classification Committee (responsible for synchronisation and promotion of agreed family circumscriptions and linear sequences among herbaria globally – see http://www.kew.org/news/vascular-plant-classification-committee.htm) and Secretary of the Kew HLAA Directorate Strategic Planning Committee.


Outside my current position I work, where possible, with the Mycology section at Kew, to increase inter-departmental research, and to pursue my fungal/lichenological research interests.

 

Projects

Selected Recent Publications

  • Wearn, J.A. & Mabberley, D.J. (in prep.) Clerodendrum L., Volkameria L., Rotheca Raf. and Hosea Ridl. Lamiaceae. Flora Malesiana, Series I.

  • Gange, A.C., Eschen, R., Wearn, J.A., Thawer, A. & Sutton, B.C. (2011) Differential effects of foliar endophytic fungi on insect herbivores attacking a herbaceous plant. Oecologia [in press]

  • Wearn, J.A. & Mabberley, D.J. (2011) Clerodendrum (Lamiaceae) in Borneo. Systematic Botany: 1050-1061 [in press].

  • Wearn, J.A. & Mabberley, D.J. (2011) Clerodendrum confusion - redefinition of, and new perspectives for, a large labiate genus. Gardens' Bulletin, Singapore 63: 119-124.

  • Wearn, J. (2011) Lichens under the microscope. Quekett Journal of Microscopy 41: 415-424.

  • Wearn, J.A., Spooner, B.M. & Gange, A.C. (2011) Morels defying the vernal lifestyle. Field Mycology 12: 32-33.

  • Wearn, J. (2010) Beneath the forest floor. [feature article: ‘James Wearn sheds some light on the ‘black box’ of the underground world of fungi’] The Forayer 6: 16-19.

  • Wearn, J. (2010) Shiplake: an assessment of lichens in a geographically-prominent churchyard in south Oxfordshire (VC23). The Reading Naturalist 62: 32-38.

  • Wearn, J.A. (2010) Bastions of beauty or dendrological disasters? A discussion of the US catalpas (Bignoniaceae) in Britain with specific reference to those in Berkshire. The Reading Naturalist 62: 29-31.

Selected Earlier Publications

  • Wearn, J.A. & Mabberley, D.J. (2009) Iberis violacea R. Br. (Brassicaceae). Flora Mediterranea 19: 261-266.

  • Wearn, J. (2009) Massaria inquinans and the pyrenomycete predicament. The Forayer 5: 28-30.

  • Wearn, J.A. (2009) Beyond Francis Rose. Bulletin of the British Lichen Society 104: 27-28.

  • Wearn, J. (2009). Pithomyces chartarum – a fungus on the up? Field Mycology 10: 36-37.

  • Wearn, J.A. (2008). Mycological-botanical contracts: species around the discussion table. Microbiologist 9: 32-34.

Scientific Research & Data

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