People

Prance, Ghillean T.

Job Title Honorary Research Fellow
Department Herbarium
Section Honorary Research Fellow
Science Teams Drylands: Tropical America
Joined Kew
Foreign Language(s) Portuguese, Spanish

Qualifications & Appointments

MA, Oxford

DPhil, Oxford

DSc

Fellow of the Royal Society

Chair, Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest Trust

Chair, Global Diversity Foundation

Role

Systematic studies of Neotropical plant families of importance in Amazonia.

Research concentrates on the systematics of the plant families Chrysobalanaceae, Caryocaraceae, Dichapetalaceae, Lecythidaceae and Proteaceae. Also conducting ethnobotanical work with various Amazon Indian tribes. Current main interest is to update previous studies on Lecythidaceae, to incorporate recent molecular data and to produce a website combining information from three principle researchers on the family. Presently monographing the genus Foetidia.

Projects

Flora of China

Taxonomic Studies of Neotropical Plant Families

Selected Publications 2001-2005

Prance, G.T. & Sothers, C.S. (2003). Chrysobalanaceae 1: Chrysobalanus to Parinari. Species Plantarum, Flora of the World 9. 1-318.

Prance, G.T.& Sothers, C.S. (2003). Chrysobalanaceae 2: Acioa to Magnistipula. Species Plantarum, Flora of the World 10. 1-268.

Prance, G.T. (2001). Chrysobalanaceae. Flora de Colombia 19: 1-292.

Prance, G.T. (2001). Dichapetalaceae. Flora de Colombia 20: 1-62.

Haffer, J. & Prance, G.T. (2001). Climatic forcing of evolution in Amazonia during the Cenozoic: On the refuge theory of biotic differentiation. Amazoniana 16: 579-607.

Selected Publications pre-2001

Prance, G. T. (1972). Chrysobalanaceae: Flora Neotropica 9, 409 pp.

Mori, S.A.&.Prance, G.T (1990).The Zygomorphic-flowered New World Lecythidaceae. Lecythidaceae - Part II. Flora Neotropica 21 (2): 1–376.

Prance, G.T.& Plana, V.(1998). The American Proteaceae. Australian Systematic Botany 11: 287–299.

Morton, C.M., Mori, S. A., Prance, G.T., Karol, K. G., & Chase, M.W. (1997). Phylogenetic relationships of Lecythidaceae: A cladistic analysis using rbcL sequence and morphological data. Amer. Jour. Bot. 84: 530–540.

Prance, G. T. (1996). Islands in Amazonia. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London B 351: 823–833. [Also In Grant, P.R. (ed). (1997). Evolution on Islands. Oxford University Press. 241–261].