Dr Isabel Larridon

I lead the Integrated Monography team of the Accelerated Taxonomy department. As a researcher I investigate the evolution, diversity and conservation of plants with main focus on the Cyperaceae or sedge family. Currently, three PhD students are unravelling the evolutionary relationships between species of the taxonomically complex genus Bulbostylis (or hair sedges) with focus on the Neotropics, Africa and Madagascar.

Other projects focus on investigating the megadiverse genus Cyperus:

    1.    diversity of the white-glumes species of Cyperus in Africa,
    2.    evolution and diversity of Cyperus in the Neotropics,
    3.    taxonomic monographs of selected Cyperus sections.

My main geographic focus in on plants from Africa and Madagascar. I currently lead the funded project “Subtribal classification and generic delimitation among Eastern Hemisphere ironweeds (Vernonieae, Compositae)” in collaboration with our partner Botanical Research Institute of Texas and colleagues in the Africa team. I also lead the fieldwork module in Madagascar for the Kew MSc in Plant and fungal Taxonomy, Diversity and Conservation. Additionally, I am engaged in Kew’s Tropical Important Plant Areas project in Guinea through the supervision of a PhD student studying the indigenous socio-economic plant species of Guinea.

In my capacity as Initiative Leader Innovating Species Identification, I coordinate the Today’s Flora for Tomorrow project in Madagascar, and co-supervise Jed Arno, a PhD student at Royal Holloway University of London, who is investigating the use of Imaging Processing, AI and Digital Technologies for the Automated Classification and Identification of Plant Specimens at Kew.

• BSc (Great distinction), Ghent University (Belgium), 2004
• MSc (Great distinction), Ghent University (Belgium), 2006
• PhD, Ghent University (Belgium), 2011
• ​Visiting Professor, Ghent University (Belgium)

• Member of Council Linnean Society of London
• Member IUCN-SSC Freshwater Plant Specialist Group
• Member IUCN-SSC West Africa Plant Red List Authority
• Associate editor, Kew Bulletin
• Associate editor, Plant Ecology and Evolution