David F Cutler is currently an Honorary Research Fellow at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, a Visiting Professor in Botany, Reading University, and an Honorary Lecturer, Imperial College, London University. He was formerly Deputy Keeper and Head of the Plant Anatomy Section, Jodrell Laboratory, RBG Kew. He is currently President of the Linnean Society of London. His research is in pure and applied plant anatomy, including systematic anatomy of angiosperms, functional aspects of plant structure and identification of fragmentary plant material. Ted Botha is Professor of Botany and was Head of Department at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. His research into plant structure and function is recognized internationally as well as locally, by the National Research Foundation. He serves on the organizing committees for several international plant structure–function groups, and is a former President of The South African Association of Botany. His contribution to teaching at Rhodes University was recognized through the award of the Vice Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2005. Dennis Wm Stevenson is currently Rupert Barneby Curator and Vice President for Botanical Science at the New York Botanical Garden. He also serves as editor of the journal Botanical Review, has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers, and edited 11 books ranging from horticulture to paleobotany to genomics. He holds adjunct faculty positions at City University of New York, Columbia University, Cornell University, New York University, and Yale University.