• Academics
Clark Publishes Definitive Guide to Cuban Plants

Lawrenceville science teacher John Clark has travelled the globe in his quest to research plant biodiversity and recently contributed to the Flora de la Republica de Cuba by publishing a taxonomic treatment on the flowering plant family Gesneriaceae. Clark is the lead author and collaborated with several Cuban botanists from the Instituto de Ecología y Sistemática and Jardín Botánica Nacional. Field work was mostly supported by a Research and Exploration Grant from the National Geographic Society  and the University of Alabama where Clark was employed before arriving at Lawrenceville.

Cuba’s size, diverse geology, and varied topography make it a home to many unique plant species and a gold mine for researchers. He first visited the island in 2006, studying Gesneriads in a small area of Alejandro de Humboldt National Park, a UNSECO World Heritage Site. When the Cuban park service launched an initiative to open the rest of the park to trekkers, Clark organized the first group from the U.S. to complete the trek. He, along with Lawrenceville teachers Jennifer Mayr (science) and Stephen Wallis (math) led 13 Lawrentians along a 60-mile journey through the park.

“We went everywhere we could. We walked the ridgelines and we walked the highest mountain. Anywhere that had a trail in any forest we got to,” said Clark. The group documented dozens of Gesneriads from the Caribbean island, many of which were only known from a few museum specimens.

Flora de la Republica de Cuba is the culmination of Clark’s 14+ years of research on Caribbean plants in one definitive taxonomic resource. The work summarizes thousands of museum specimens from around the world and includes many field images of plants that had never been photographed.

While he can’t currently travel to Cuba, Clark’s examination of the island’s Gesneriads continues. He’s partnered with the Montreal Botanical Garden (Canada) and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (Scotland) to study the specimens he collected. “There are some interesting evolutionary based phylogenetic studies we're doing with the plants,” he explained. “Now that we have some of these species figured out, we can start looking at how they evolve and adapt in unique ways.

For additional information, please contact Lisa M. Gillard Hanson, director of Public Relations, at lgillard@lawrenceville.org.