Michele Dani Sanchez

Dr
SC Botanical Garden

Office: 150 Discovery Lane, Clemson, SC
Phone: 864-686-3618

Email: mdanisa@clemson.edu

Educational Background

PhD Biology
Birkbeck College, University of London 2013

BSc Biological Sciences
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul 1992

Profile

I am a biologist, botanist and horticulturist with experience in plant conservation and project management in the United Kingdom and the Caribbean. I grew up in Brazil and later moved to London, UK, where I gained my PhD degree and worked for 19 years for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, acquiring experience in horticulture, seed banking, field botany, population genetics, biogeography, GIS, restoration ecology and outreach. I joined the Cooperative Extension Service at Clemson University in March 2024. I am based at the South Carolina Botanical Garden and work collaboratively with colleagues at the garden to develop the native plant conservation collection, seed banking, special projects, grants, plant conservation networks, and support collections curation and GIS. I am part of the South Carolina Champion Trees Program, helping reassess trees, curate data and develop collaborations with Clemson University Center for Geospatial Technologies. I am a member of the Botanical Society of America, International Association for Plant Taxonomy, Linnean Society of London, and the Royal Horticultural Society.

Research Interests

My main interests are ex-situ plant conservation through seed banking and living collections, conservation horticulture, documenting and preserving champion and veteran trees, biodiversity and sustainability in the natural environment and in gardens, collaborative and multi-disciplinary research in plant conservation making it accessible through outreach and education, use of GIS for surveying, curation, mapping and outreach.

Publications

Dolata, M. A. et al.(2024). Prioritising areas for conservation within Tropical Important Plant Areas of the British Virgin Islands, Caribbean. Nature Conservation, 55, 153–176. https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.55.116844

Dani Sanchez, M. et al.(2021). Tropical Important Plant Areas, plant species richness and conservation in the British Virgin Islands. Nature Conservation, 45, 11–39. https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.45.73544

Clubbe, C. et al.(2020). Current knowledge, status, and future for plant and fungal diversity in Great Britain and the UK Overseas Territories. Plants, People, Planet, 2(5), 557–579. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10142

Dani Sanchez, M. et al.(2019). Conserving and restoring the Caicos pine forests: The first decade. Plant Diversity, 41(2), 75–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pld.2018.05.002

Gargiulo, R. et al.(2019). Phylogeography and post-glacial dynamics in the clonal-sexual orchid Cypripedium calceolus L. Journal of Biogeography, 46(3), 526–538. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.13528

Links