Dr. Maarten Christenhusz is a Dutch botanist, artist, and author known for his groundbreaking work on plant diversity and classification. As the principal author of the influential encyclopedia Plants of the World and a lead scientist in the international Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, his research has helped shape how we understand and conserve the world’s flora. He is especially interested in the interaction between humans and plants and has worked extensively on the history and evolution of tulips, ferns, orchids, and many other plant groups.

Maarten completed a PhD on Caribbean flora at the University of Turku, Finland, where he taught graduate classes on plant diversity. He also curated the collections of the Helsinki Botanical Garden before moving to Great Britain in 2009. He first worked at the Natural History Museum in London, followed by projects at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; the University of Western Australia; and the Linnean Society of London. He now lives in North Wales where he works as a consultant for a variety of projects in the U.K. and the Netherlands. He serves as scientific advisor to the Hortus botanicus in Delft and is currently studying the evolution and development of garden tulips.

Maarten has traveled extensively—from the Amazon to the Australian Outback—in search of unusual plants to understand the foundation of botanical evolution. His contributions extend from discovering and describing new plant species to sharing his passion for natural history through expeditions, presentations, books he has authored, photography, and art. When he is not gardening or traveling, he likes to draw and paint, and he can often be found sketching a flower or a landscape.