A TOP botanist in East London recognised around the world has been given two honours for his research on small plants. They honoured Prof Jeffrey Duckett for his work with mosses, liverworts and hornworts at his university labs at Queen Mary college

A TOP university botanist in East London recognised around the world has been given two honours for his research on small plants.

The International Association of Bryologists and London’s Natural History Museum this week both honoured Prof Jeffrey Duckett for his work with mosses, liverworts and hornworts at his botany labs at London University’s Queen Mary College in Mile End.

He has been elected president of the Bryologists association after getting votes from plant boffins across the globe, including Australia, China, Hungary, India, Japan, Russia and the USA.

He also becomes a Scientific Associate at the Natural History Museum in South Kensington.

The two accolades follow hot on the heels of the Linnean Society medal for Botany, which Prof Duckett received last year.

Professor Duckett has studied primitive Bryophytes plants to find out how they survive in dry conditions, which could hold the key to developing more drought-tolerant crop plants. They have the remarkable property of being able to cope without water for long periods of time.

He has also looked at the dramatic increase in London’s biodiversity since the Clean Air Acts of the 1950s and 60s and the development of Green Wall’ technology using mosses.