Timothy Waters’s Website

St Joseph’s cathedral, Nouméa, at sunset

Welcome to my homepage. I don’t know how you got here or why you chose to visit, but hello nevertheless.

I’ve been finishing a doctorate in the Oxford University Herbaria on the systematics of Agathis Salisb., a group of giant tropical conifers from the rain forests of Malesia and the western Pacific islands, and, which has grown to dominate that issue, the question of what exactly species are in the first place. I’ve handed it in, and I’m waiting for the viva.

I’d been in Oxford for many years, and have now gone off to work as an apparatchik in local government in London, a state of affairs not without its excitements. I keep up my interest in the natural history of this damp and miserable island, and of more wonderful countries, in my spare time.

If you are interested in the nomenclature of cultivated Swedish birches, in the taxonomy & uses of Agathis, in a university expedition which departed the UK over five years ago (O call back yesterday, bid time return...), in tutorials I give in systematic theory, in a mildly silly listing of tracheophyte families of my acquaintance, or in photographs of all sorts of plants, temperate and tropical, plus the odd church and statue, then you have come to the right place (hurrah!): see the links to the top left (lots more similar pictures of mine are on Flickr than I have space here to accommodate).

If you are not interested in any of those things, then it’s unclear to me how you ended up here, but never mind. You may wish to follow one of the links on the bottom left and to the right, and go somewhere altogether more interesting. I’m afraid I don’t run to a blog, but the ones to the right are usually worth a read.

If you don’t like the picture on this page, press F5 and the page will reload: with a bit of luck you’ll then get a different picture. Isn’t technology marvellous?

Hope you find something of interest. Let me know if you’re looking for something that used to be here but doesn’t seem to be here any more. I’ve probably still got it somewhere or other, and I can dig it out if need be.

Incidentally, please let me know if you think the colour scheme on this page is vile. I rather like the dark green myself but I’m not so keen on the light green.

Timothy Waters
autumn 2005

Update - the cartoon on the left which several people have commented on was kindly sent to me by Harry Keane, stalwart of the Gillingham Constituency Labour Party and one of the many kind people in Kent with whom I worked this spring. The general view appears to be that the colour of this page is revolting to the point of nausea: thanks in particular to a well-crafted barrage of abuse from a Nuffield student. Suggestions for colours that you would prefer are very welcome.

Another Update - thanks to the kindness and botanical wisdom of the doctoral students of the Institute for Systematic Botany at the University of Zürich, I’ve now seen members of the Globulariaceae for the first time, as well as flowering representatives of a host of exciting European genera including Homogyne, Dryas, Neottia, Amelanchier, Crocus, Soldanella, Thesium, Gentiana, Cypripedium and Pulsatilla. Floristically, Switzerland is wonderful. Pictures will follow.

All content (including images) © 2001-2006 Timothy Waters
This website last updated: 2006-10-03.
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