Scott A. Mori Nathaniel Lord Britton Curator of Botany, The New York Botanical Garden Ph.D., The University of Wisconsin Madison, Wisconsin (1974) "Taxonomic and Anatomic Studies of Gustavia (Lecythidaceae)" Expertise: Systematics and ecology of Neotropical Lecythidaceae; Amazonian and Guianan floristics

Profile

My research on flowering plants focuses on the taxonomy and ecology of trees of the lowland New World tropics. I am especially interested in co-evolution between plants and their pollinators and seed dispersers. In order to investigate these relationships, I pursue taxonomic research on the Brazil nut family (Lecythidaceae) for which my colleague Iain Prance and I have completed a Flora Neotropica monograph. In addition, I have selected geographic areas of high species diversity of the Brazil nut family for detailed study of its ecological relationships. I have published the results of a study of the 27 species of the family found in central French Guiana and a study of the 39 species of Lecythidaceae found in a 100-hectare central Amazonian plot. My studies have given me a better understanding of the evolution of the family as well as permitted me to make specific recommendations for the conservation of lowland, neotropical trees.

I am dedicated to the conservation of tropical forests. In addition, I am interested in teaching others about the beauty, complexity, and importance of tropical ecosystems by leading ecotours to the tropics.

I have prepared a vascular plant flora of a biological reserve in central French Guiana. The flora was done in collaboration with the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), one of the organizations responsible for research in France‘s overseas departments. The book is designed to allow non-botanists to determine the names of plants in this, one of the last wilderness areas of the world. I continue my work in French Guiana with studies of plant/animal interactions, in particular bat pollination and dispersal, and have instituted an e-Flora of French Guiana in collaboration with French Scientists associated with IRD and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).

My wife, Carol Gracie, and I are preparing an electronic flora of all flowering plants of the Caribbean island of Saba in the Netherlands Antilles and I am working with Reinaldo Aguilar and Xavier Cornejo to prepare an e-flora of the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica.

I am committed to making the monographic and floristic data I gather available electronically and, thus, my monographic and floristics studies are online (see links in left hand panel).

Selected Publications