Brian M. Boom

Administration of the Botanical Science Division is my first priority. My research interests are in both systematic and economic botany with a geographic focus on the Neotropics, within which I am particularly intrigued by the vast wilderness area in northern South America known as the Guayana region.

The Guayana, an area of some one million square kilometers, comprises all of southern Venezuela, northern Brazil, eastern Colombia, and parts of Guyana, French Guiana, and Surinam. The region has been a focus of NYBG attention since the early part of this century because of its spectacular endemism, and as a result of the explorations of H.A. Gleason, Bassett Maguire, and their collaborators, the world's most comprehensive collection of plant specimens from the Guayana has been assembled at the NYBG. In addition to continuing botanical exploration of the region in collaboration with colleagues in South America, my work there has involved ecological tree inventories, to date conducted in Venezuela and Guyana.

In my systematic research, I work principally on the Rubiaceae, the coffee family, which is one of the most diverse and ecologically most important groups of neotropical plants. Floristically, I am contributing the complete Rubiaceae treatment for the "Flora of Central French Guiana," and partial treatments for the "Flora of Mexico" and the "Flora of the Greater Antilles." I am also continuing systematic research begun by the late Bassett Maguire on the Rapateaceae and Clusiaceae.

In the area of economic botany, I am continuing to investigate the use and management of plant resources by the indigenous peoples who live in South America . My most recent study concerned the ethnobotany of the Panare Indians of southern Venezuela. I am currently undertaking a renewed investigation of Chácobo ethnobotany in Amazonian Bolivia.

Email Address: bboom@nybg.org

Selected Publications