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Dr. John David, United Kingdom

Dr. John David

Dr. John David is Head of Horticultural Taxonomy at RHS Garden, Wisley. Following seventeen years working as a mycologist he moved to become Head of Botany at the RHS in 2005 and was subsequently Chief Scientist (2009-2014). In his current role he leads a team responsible for the taxonomic research and the herbarium at Wisley, as well as the Society’s registrars, including the Daffodil Register.

In 2006 he set up the journal Hanburyana, dedicated to publishing papers on horticultural taxonomy and in 2007 edited the Hardy Nerine Study Day report, which is the basis of his subsequent research in the genus. More recently he was responsible for the revision and production of the 6th Edition of the RHS Colour Chart (2015). The other area of research has been on daffodils, inspired in part by several trips to Spain to look at the species in the wild, with Brian Duncan, Sally Kington and John Blanchard. He is leading the project to produce a monograph of the genus and has already co-supervised one PhD at the University of Reading on Section Bulbocodium. A second PhD is underway to study Sections Apodanthi and Jonquilla.

In addition to his RHS role, he is Collections Secretary of the Linnean Society of London, member of the Chelsea Physic Garden Advisory Committee, and Honorary Research Fellow at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He is also a member of the Editorial Committee for the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants.


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