Forensic Botanist, Writer, Consultant, TV presenter

Dr Mark Spencer is an experienced and internationally respected botanist. His expertise covers many disciplines including forensic botany, the plants of North-west Europe, invasive species and the history of botanical science. He works globally as a seasoned writer, public speaker and television presenter. As a forensic botanist, Mark has worked on various missing person enquiries, murders and other serious crimes.

With several decades’ experience of studying plants, Mark has worked and studied at some of the UK’s most important botanical organisations. He is a consultant botanist specialising in several fields, particularly forensic botany (the use of plants as evidence in serious crime), botanical surveys, curation & museology. Originally a horticulturist, he studied at the world-famous Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He later studied Botany at the University of Reading., remaining at Reading to do a PhD in the evolution of plant pathogenic fungi. After University, he returned to London where he surveyed the capital’s wild plants on behalf of the Greater London Authority. He then spent over 12 years working for the prestigious Natural History Museum where he gained an international reputation as an expert in botany, collections management and gallery development.

In his personal life, Mark is busy coordinating a major project to document the flora of London on behalf of the London Natural History Society and is The Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland’s vice-county recorder for Middlesex. In his spare time, he either tends his garden and allotment on the Isle of Wight or can be found in the back streets of London looking for plants or fungi.

This was a compelling talk – Dr Spencer talked about what an honour it was to work with the police and other expert witnesses. But most of all what an honour it was to work with the dead, and be able to tell their stories after they could no longer speak.

Plantlife International