Orchids deserve such a visual celebration: parts of the orchid flower have shapes unlike any other flowering plant, and the sheer number of species means they have a seemingly endless ability to create ever more fantastical forms. In fact, many orchid common names refer to the shape-shifting forms of their flowers--the man-orchids or monkey-orchids are so called because of their resemblance to the primate form. Orchids lend themselves to depiction, and botanical artworks of them abound. Who could resist painting or drawing such odd shapes?

Illustrated with stunning artwork, much from the archives of the Natural History Museum in London and never before published, Extraordinary Orchids includes depictions from celebrated botanical artists such as Ferdinand and Franz Bauer, Arthur Harry Church, and Sydney Parkinson, revealing the weird and wonderful lives of this most diverse of plant families.

I am a specialist on the taxonomy of the nightshade family, Solanaceae, and have spent much time in the field in Central and South America collecting plants. My particular focus of research is the taxonomy of the nightshade family Solanaceae, focusing on the megadiverse genus Solanum, which contains potatoes, tomatoes and eggplants and is one of only a handful of flowering plant genera with more than 1000 species, and more recently the peppers (Capsicum) and their poorly known close relatives in the genus Lycianthes. 

I have described more than 75 new species of plants, mostly in Solanum and from the New World tropics. I came to the Natural History Museum in 1992 to manage the international project Flora Mesoamericana - a synoptic inventory of the approximately 18,000 species of plants of southern Mexico and the isthmus of Central America.

My current projects include: 1) A world-wide taxonomic monograph of the some 1500 species of Solanum and a similar global monographic treatment of Capsicum and Lycianthes, 2) Flora Mesoamericana, 3) Collaborative research in phylogenetics and genomic evolution of Solanaceae, 4) Research into the domestication of Solanaceae crops such as eggplants in China and "African supervegetables", 5) Conservation and biodiversity monitoring projects in

My work depends upon seeing plants in their native habitats and I have been fortunate enough to have visited many countries and worked with many colleagues overseas.

On my past few field trips I have posted blogs from the field, you can look for new ones on the NHM website or on Solanaceae Source, our collaborative web platform for nightshade taxonomy (www.solanaceaesousrce.org)

Education 

• PhD, Cornell University, United States, 1980 - 1986
• BA, Pomona College, United States, 1974 - 1978

Source: National History Museum