James Clugston, MBC’s newest Kelly Botanical Research Fellow, visited MBC for three weeks to study the phenology of cycads. James Clugston is a 4th year student in Horticulture with Plantsmanship at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE). His research compares phenological data from wild herbarium specimens to phenological data in a garden collection from information in the MBC database.
On this project, James Clugston is working with Zamia primarily, due to their large numbers in our collection and in herbarium collections. But, he is also deeply interested in South African cycads, Encephalartos in particular.
James Clugston is also working on this project with Dennis Stevenson and Damon Little at The NYBG. We look forward to good outcomes from this collaborative research.