About the Author and Site Creator

Dr Chris Stapleton has 25 years experience as a bamboo specialist. He holds an honours degree in Forestry from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, and a PhD in bamboo taxonomy. As well as working on bamboo identification and propagation for development projects in Nepal and Bhutan with VSO and ODA, he has also worked for western botanic gardens (Edinburgh & Kew in the UK, and indirectly for Missouri Botanical Garden in the US). He spent 6 years on the staff of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, where he undertook research into bamboo systematics and nomenclature, reorganizing the herbarium collections of dried bamboo specimens and revising many of the names on the living collections. He has published a substantial number of papers and books, including co-authorship of the bamboo account for the Flora of China. He has undertaken extensive fieldwork in the Himalayas and China, introducing several interesting bamboos to western horticulture.

He has lectured widely on bamboos in the US, and has served on the Board of Directors of the American Bamboo Society as International Representative. He is also editor of the ABS Species List, which standardizes names for bamboos in cultivation. He is Honorary Research Associate of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Honorary Life Member of the American Bamboo Society, and Life Member of the International Dendrology Society. He lives in the Chiltern Hills of S England with his wife and 2 children, and several of his favourite bamboos.

Contact Dr Chris Stapleton for identification and consultancy services.

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