Sumatran Rainforest, showing a dense green forest canopy from above

Dr Zoe Goodwin

Dr Zoë Goodwin, Postgraduate Programme Co-ordinator

I am the Postgraduate Programme Co-ordinator for the RBGE's MSc in Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants. I am course leader for the 'Evolution of Plants' and 'Biodiversity of Angiosperms' modules and I also help teach the 'Tropical Plant Identification' module. I specialise in teaching the vegetative identification of tropical plant families and general field identification skills.

I am also a tropical botanist specialising in the Neotropical flora, in particular I am interested in the savanna and dry forests of Central and South America.

After my MSc I spent much of my time collecting and identifying plants in the forests and lowland savannas of Belize, Central America. During my PhD I investigated the history of tropical taxa through herbarium specimens, and how these herbarium specimens have influenced our understanding of tropical diversity.

I continue to work on the flora of Belize and in the Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests of the Marañón valley in Peru, an inter-Andean valley which is famous for its exceptional number of endemic species.

Orcid

Google Scholar

Specimens in GBIF

Botanics Stories

Selected Publications

Goodwin, Z.A. et al. (2020) How long does it take to discover a species? Systematics and Biodiversity

Goodwin, Z.A. et al. (2020) Belize and the RBGE: Reflecting on 16 years of collaborative training. Edinburgh Journal of Botany 77 (2): 291–309

Goodwin, Z.A. et al. (2015) Widespread mistaken identity in tropical plant collections. Current Biology 25 (22): R1066–R1067

Goodwin, Z.A. et al. (2013) A checklist of the vascular plants of the lowland savannas of Belize, Central America. Phytotaxa 101 (1): 1–119

Hicks, J., Goodwin, Z.A. et al. (2011) A floristic description of the San Pastor Savanna, Belize, Central America. Edinburgh Journal of Botany 68 (2): 273–296

Specimens

Specimens in GBIF

Belize (2006+) - The top sets of my specimens (numbers 100+) are held at E and BRH, additional sets are held at BM, MEXU, MO & K.

Brasil (2019) - Collected with Peter Moonlight, top set held at HUEFS.

Perú (2020) - Collected with Paúl Gonzáles, held at USM, E, MOL, MO, CPUN & QCA.

St Lucia (2005) - Numbers 1-100 are held at the National Herbarium of St Lucia & UPRRP.

Citation:

Goodwin, Zoë. 2022. Natural history specimens collected and/or identified and deposited. [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3581428

Selected Media Coverage

“Museum Mistakes” 2015 Interview with BBC World Service

Scotsman Interview 2015

Outreach

Zenodo Blog: Zenodo Enables a New Workflow for Collectors of Natural History Specimens

Linnean Society Talk: Stories from Plant Collections: Science, History and Culture (Talk and Q&A)

Botanics Story: Learning on the job: students make valuable scientific discoveries

Botanics Story: Hot, steep and spiny – Exploring the forgotten forests of Latin America

Z.A. Goodwin (2016) Lets talk about coffee – correctly. Standart 6: 20-23

Education

PhD, Univ. Oxford, 2018. “Completing the global inventory of plants–Species discovery and diversity”
MSc Biodiversity & Taxonomy of Plants, Univ. Edinburgh & Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 2006. “Floral evolution in the Streptocarpus cyaneus (Moore) complex”
BSc Environmental Biology, Univ. St Andrews, 2005. “Further investigation into possible gene flow between sympatric Senecio glaucus L. and Senecio vernalis Waldst. & Kit. in Israel: evidence for a previously undetected hybrid swarm.”

Project - Lowland Savanna of Belize

Useful links:

Darwin Initiative Project 17-022 Conservation of the lowland savanna ecosystem in Belize

Searchable end of project database (BRAHMS online)

Specimens held at E (search for Collector Surname/Expedition = "Goodwin" + Country = "Belize")

Field guides to the flora of the lowland savanna of Belize:

Casual user

Endemic and rare species

Eriocaulaceae

Fabaceae

Melastomataceae

Project - Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests of the Marañón valley in Peru

Useful links:

Newton-Paulet Funded project website: Increasing knowledge of dry and montane ecosystems across Peru

Publications:

Paúl Gonzáles, Asunción Cano, Tiina Särkinen, Zoë Goodwin, Niels Valencia, Inés Sachahuamán y José Luis Marcelo-Peña. Las plantas comunes del bosque seco del Marañón Biodiversidad para las comunidades locales

Yawei Cao, Zoë Goodwin, Paúl Gonzáles y Tiina Särkinen. Guide to the common Apocynaceae species of the Marañón seasonally dry tropical forest English & Español

Outreach:

Botanics Story: Hot, steep and spiny – Exploring the forgotten forests of Latin America

Students