Discovering New Plant Species: Selby Gardens Expeditions in the Tropical Andes (OLLI)

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens is internationally recognized for its research on tropical plants and its mission to explore, understand, and conserve biodiversity. Despite centuries of botanical exploration, scientists continue to discover plant species new to science every year, many of them in the northern Andes—one of Earth's greatest biodiversity hotspots. Join Selby Gardens Research Botanist Dr. John L. Clark for an inside look at modern botanical exploration, from remote cloud forests in Ecuador and Colombia to the laboratory, where DNA sequencing complements traditional taxonomy to reveal evolutionary relationships and identify previously unknown species. Through striking photographs, stories from the field, and examples from Selby's research program, Dr. Clark will explain how new species are discovered, documented, named, and conserved, and why these discoveries are essential for protecting Earth's botanical diversity. The presentation concludes with time for audience questions and discussion.

John L. Clark, Ph.D., is a Research Botanist at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, where he studies the diversity, evolution, and conservation of tropical plants. His research has taken him throughout Latin America, with extensive fieldwork in Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Haiti, and Panama. Dr. Clark has discovered and described more than 100 plant species new to science and has authored more than 150 scientific publications. Passionate about sharing the excitement of scientific discovery, he enjoys engaging audiences through lectures, photography, and firsthand accounts from botanical expeditions. His presentations combine cutting-edge research with vivid images and field experiences from some of the world's most biologically diverse and threatened tropical forests.