Alastair Robinson


Alastair S. Robinson is a taxonomist and field botanist specialising in the carnivorous plant genus Nepenthes, for which he is regarded as a world authority. He is currently a manager at the National Herbarium of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, where he oversees identification botany services, the Library and Artwork components of the State Botanical Collection, and the botanical journal Muelleria, a peer-reviewed scientific journal on botany published by the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, for which he is Editor in Chief.
In 2007, Robinson co-discovered the giant Palawan pitcher plant, Nepenthes attenboroughii, for which he published the formal description and diagnosis in 2009, speculating on the paleogeographical evidence for the radiative speciation of an enigmatic group of ultramafic Philippine and Malaysian Nepenthes from a common ancestor on the island of Borneo.. Nepenthes attenboroughii was the largest-pitchered Nepenthes discovered since the identification of Nepenthes rajah on Borneo in 1858. Other discoveries resulting from his work in Palawan include a first record of the orchid genus Stigmatodactylus in the Philippines, with two new species, Stigmatodactylus aquamarinus A.S.Rob. & E.Gironella and Stigmatodactylus dalagangpalawanicum A.S.Rob., described from Palawan in 2016.
A slipper orchid endemic to Sulawesi, Indonesia, was commemoratively named Paphiopedilum robinsonianum after this authority following its discovery in 2013.
Robinson received his BSc from University College London and his PhD from the University of Cambridge for research into the molecular control mechanisms of spatio-temporal cell-development in plants. Specialisms also include stapeliads, terrestrial orchids, ecology and conservation biology.
Works of interest include a 3-volume flora of the genus Drosera, a 2-volume flora of the genus Pinguicula, a 2-volume flora of Nepenthes, titled Pitcher Plants of the Old World, for which he co-authored the species descriptions, and a range of Nepenthes field guides.
Robinson is brother to screen actress Zuleikha Robinson.

Publications