Descriptive Taxonomy: The Foundation of Biodiversity Research

Mark Watson is Head of the Major Floras research programme at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE), where he leads the Flora of Nepal team. He is a taxonomic botanist and expert in floristic research in the Sino-Himalayan region, with over 23 years' experience at RBGE in floristics, fieldwork and biodiversity informatics.

Chris Lyal is a researcher at the Natural History Museum in London, with over 40 years' experience in insect taxonomy, including fieldwork in many countries. He has worked on the digitisation of taxonomic literature to address the 'taxonomic impediment' – the shortage of taxonomists and taxonomic tools that hinders work in other areas of biodiversity research and management.

Colin Pendry is an editor for the Flora of Nepal based at RBGE. His background is in ecology, and for the last 20 years he has worked as a plant taxonomist. He has extensive experience of fieldwork in the UK, South East Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and Nepal and is at the forefront of developments in RBGE's fieldwork methods.