Millions of plant samples, some centuries old, are held in the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Bayer Center in St. Louis. The newest items arrive packaged in newspapers from their home countries, the pages carefully folded to preserve a stem, flower or root system.
These are not living samples. They arrive at the research facility positioned in death as they were at the moment they were collected in the field. Flowers that were once globes of color are flattened into circles, with each petal and stem pinned in place, the result casting the plant in two-dimensional relief.
In many cases, the samples are unidentified. That’s where taxonomist Charlotte Taylor comes in. Naming plants is her specialty: She’s identified more than 500 new species, more than any other living woman in the field.
Taylor has spent more than 40 years in the fields of botany and taxonomy. “The general question is, ‘What is all this life around us?’” she explained. “This is imposing a scientific framework on stuff that scientists can use. You have to understand what the plant is doing, and who the plant is, before you can name it.”
Taylor usually derives a new species’ name from its physical characteristics and environment. Her research is focused on the Rubiaceae family, which contains the species of coffee and quinine. Her samples often arrive packaged in newspapers from countries in South America and Madagascar.
“In order to study something, you have to know what it is,” she said. “We do this with documentation and careful delimitation of information so that people can find it. I basically write reference books.”
Taylor is one of 60 taxonomists at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Until recently, she was unaware of her rank as the most prolific living female taxonomist of plants.
That changed when she was contacted by researchers from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the University of Cambridge. Their 2023 study “Acknowledging female role models in botanical and mycological taxonomy” documented the contributions of women scientists across decades — and found that Taylor’s 500 new plant species made her the third-most prolific femaled botanist of all time.
“It was actually very exciting, very satisfying and very surprising, because I simply never thought about it,” Taylor said, recounting her reaction to getting the news. “I work at the Missouri Botanical Garden. This is what we do. This is who we are. We're the big time. Of course I have a lot of species.”
To hear more from Missouri Botanical Garden taxonomist Charlotte Taylor, including her insight into solving the mysteries of the plant world, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcast, Spotify or Google Podcast or by clicking the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr. Send questions and comments about this story to talk@stlpr.org.
