Dr Sandra Knapp

Dr Sandra Knapp

Director of Research and Merit Researcher

ORCID: 0000-0001-7698-3945
Department: Research
Division: Research
Email: [email protected]
  • Phone: +44 (0) 7789774299

Summary

I am currently serving as Director of Research, managing the talented team of researchers across all of natural history who work at the Natural History Museum.

I am a botanist and specialist on the taxonomy of the nightshade family, Solanaceae. During my career I have spent much time in the field in Central and South America collecting plants. My particular focus of research is the taxonomy of the megadiverse genus Solanum, which contains potatoes, tomatoes and eggplants and is one of only a handful of flowering plant genera with more than 1,000 species. I have also worked in other genera across the family such as Capsicum and its close relative Lycianthes. I have described more than 100 new species of plants, mostly in Solanum and from the American tropics.

I came to the Natural History Museum in 1992 to manage the international project Flora Mesoamericana - a synoptic inventory of the approximately 18,000 species of plants of southern Mexico and the isthmus of Central America. The Flora is an international collaboration with The Missouri Botanic Garden and the Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and involves more than 400 botanists worldwide as authors of individual treatments.

My current research projects include: 1) A world-wide taxonomic monograph of the some 1,250 species of Solanum , 3) Collaborative research in phylogenetics and genomic evolution of Solanaceae, 4) work looking at the evolutionary patterns in mega-diverse (>1,000 species) genera of flowering plants, and 5) continuing work with Flora Mesoamericana.

My work depends upon seeing plants in their native habitats and I have been fortunate enough to have visited many countries and worked with many national and international colleagues to understand nightshade evolution.

Qualifications

Degrees

  • BA, Pomona College, United States, 1974 - 1978
  • PhD, Cornell University, United States, 1980 - 1986

Academic

  • Honorary Doctorate, Stockholm University, Sweden, 2011 - ongoing
  • Honorary Research Professor, University College London, Genes, Ecology and Environment, United Kingdom, 2008 - ongoing
  • Field Associate, Field Museum of Natural History, United States, 1997 - ongoing

Highlighted publications

  • Deanna R, Barboza GE, Bohs L, Dodsworth S, Gagnon E, Giacomin LL, Knapp S, Orejuela A, Poczai P, Särkinen T, Smith SD, Olmstead RG (2026) A new phylogeny and phylogenetic classification for Solanaceae. TAXON 75, doi: 10.1002/tax.70129
  • Zhang Z, Zhang P, Ding Y, Wang Z, Ma Z, Gagnon E, Jia Y, Cheng L, Bao Z, Liu Z, Wu Y, Hu Y, Lian Q, Lin W, Wang N, Ye K, Wang H, Zhang J, Zhou Y, Liu L, Li S, Lucas WJ, Särkinen T, Knapp S, Rieseberg LH, Liu J, Huang S (2025) Ancient hybridization underlies tuberization and radiation of the potato lineage. Cell 188, 5249 - 5265000000000000000. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.06.034
  • Moonlight PW, Baldaszti L, Cardoso D, Elliott A, Särkinen T, Knapp S (2024) Twenty years of big plant genera. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 291, doi: 10.1098/rspb.2024.0702
  • Deanna R, Martínez C, Manchester S, Wilf P, Campos A, Knapp S, Chiarini FE, Barboza GE, Bernardello G, Sauquet H, Dean E, Orejuela A, Smith SD (2023) Fossil berries reveal global radiation of the nightshade family by the early Cenozoic. New Phytologist 238, 2685 - 2697. doi: 10.1111/nph.18904
  • Ranil RHG, Prohens J, Aubriot X, Niran HML, Plazas M, Fonseka RM, Vilanova S, Fonseka HH, Gramazio P, Knapp S (2017) Solanum insanum L. (subgenus Leptostemonum Bitter, Solanaceae), the neglected wild progenitor of eggplant (S. melongena L.): a review of taxonomy, characteristics and uses aimed at its enhancement for improved eggplant breeding. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 64, 1707 - 1722. doi: 10.1007/s10722-016-0467-z
  • Vorontsova MS, Knapp S (2016) A revision of the spiny solanums, Solanum subgenus Leptostemonum (Solanaceae) in Africa and Madagascar. Systematic Botany Monographs 99, 1 - 432.
  • Särkinen T, Bohs L, Olmstead RG, Knapp S (2013) A phylogenetic framework for evolutionary study of the nightshades (Solanaceae): a dated 1000-tip tree. BMC Evolutionary Biology 13, 214 - 214. doi: 10.1186/1471-2148-13-214
  • McNeill J, Barrie FR, Buck WR, Demoulin V, Greuter W, HAWKSWORTH DL, Herendeen PS, KNAPP S, Marhold K, Prado J, Prud'homme van Reine WF, Smith GE, Wiersema JH, Turland NJ (2012) International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (Melbourne Code) adopted by the Eighteenth International Botanical Congress Melbourne, Australia, July 2011. [Regnum Vegetabile No. 154.]. Koeltz Scientific Books : Königsten. xxx + 208 - null.
  • Knapp S, Vorontsova MS, Prohens J Wild Relatives of the Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.: Solanaceae): New Understanding of Species Names in a Complex Group. Fuller DQ (Eds). PLoS ONE 8, null - null. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0057039
  • Knapp S A revision of the Dulcamaroid Clade of Solanum L. (Solanaceae). PhytoKeys 22, 1 - 428. doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.22.4041
  • Knapp S A revision of Lycianthes (Solanaceae) in tropical Asia. PhytoKeys 245, 1 - 106. doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.245.121988
  • Särkinen T, Hilgenhof R, Gouvêa YF, Giacomin LL, Stone J, Aubriot X, Tepe EJ, Barboza G, Chiarini F, Stern S, Tovar JD, Bohs L, Martine CT, Orejuela A, Orozco CI, Peralta IE, Da Silva Sampaio V, Rodríguez A, Knapp S Taming the beasts: challenges of identification in big plant genera. Annals of Botany doi: 10.1093/aob/mcaf164

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