Alastair Robinson

For the New Zealand rugby union player, see Alastair Robinson (rugby union).

Alastair S. Robinson (born 1980) is a British-American taxonomist and field botanist specialising in the carnivorous plant genus Nepenthes. Robinson published the first paleogeographical evidence for the radiative speciation of an enigmatic group of ultramafic Philippine and Malaysian Nepenthes from a common ancestor on the island of Borneo.[1][2]

In 2007, Robinson co-discovered the giant Palawan pitcher plant, Nepenthes attenboroughii, for which he authored the formal description and diagnosis. This species was the largest-pitchered Nepenthes discovered since the identification of Nepenthes rajah on Borneo in 1858.[1][3][4][5] Other discoveries resulting from his ongoing work in Palawan include the first records of the orchid genus Stigmatodactylus in the Philippines, with two new species, Stigmatodactylus aquamarinus A.S.Rob. & E.Gironella and Stigmatodactylus dalagangpalawanicum A.S.Rob., described from Palawan in 2016.[6]

A slipper orchid endemic to Sulawesi, Indonesia, was commemoratively named Paphiopedilum robinsonianum after this authority following its discovery in 2013.[7][8]

Robinson received his B.Sc. from University College London and his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge for research into the molecular control mechanisms of spatio-temporal cell-development in plants. Specialisms include stapeliads (Apocynaceae), terrestrial orchids, ecology and conservation biology, which he has studied in southern Europe, Tanzania, Borneo and the Philippines.[3]

Works of interest include the 2009 treatment of Nepenthes and Cephalotus, Pitcher Plants of the Old World (two volumes), for which he was contributor and principal editor, the authorship of the Indochina and New Guinea sections of New Nepenthes: Volume One (2011), and a range of field guides published during 2012.[3][9]

Robinson is brother to Hollywood screen actress Zuleikha Robinson.[4]

Publications

References

  1. 1 2 Robinson, A.S., A.S. Fleischmann, S.R. McPherson, V.B. Heinrich, E.P. Gironella & C.Q. Peña 2009. A spectacular new species of Nepenthes L. (Nepenthaceae) pitcher plant from central Palawan, Philippines. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 159(2): 195–202. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.2008.00942.x
  2. ↑ Cheek, M.R. & M.H.P. Jebb 1999. Nepenthes (Nepenthaceae) in Palawan, Philippines. Kew Bulletin 54(4): 887–895. doi:10.2307/4111166
  3. 1 2 3 McPherson, S.R. 2009. Pitcher Plants of the Old World. Redfern Natural History Productions Ltd., Poole.
  4. 1 2 Evening Standard Magazine (11 Dec 2009), Daily Mail Group.
  5. ↑ Walker, M. 2009. Giant 'meat-eating' plant found. BBC Earth News, August 11, 2009.
  6. ↑ New orchid species of Stigmatodactylus (Orchidoideae; Diurideae) and a new record of Cryptostylis carinata from central Palawan, Philippines
  7. ↑ Cavestro 2014 publ. 2013. Paphiopedilum robinsonianum Cavestro Rhône-Alpes Orchid. 52(14).
  8. ↑ Govaerts, R. 2013. Paphiopedilum robinsonianum World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, Kew. Retrieved on 1 October 2013.
  9. ↑ McPherson, S.R. New Nepenthes: Volume One. Redfern Natural History Productions, Poole.
  10. ↑ IPNI.  A.S.Rob.
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