Rate My Professor Janice M. Lord

Professor Janice M. Lord is a botanist in the Department of Botany, Division of Sciences, at the University of Otago, serving as Professor and Curator of the Otago Regional Herbarium. She obtained her PhD from the University of Canterbury in 1992, completed a five-year postdoctoral fellowship at Macquarie University, Australia, and joined the University of Otago Botany Department as a Lecturer in 1997, advancing to her current professorial position, highlighted by her inaugural lecture 'From flowers to trees: Botany in a changing world' in May 2025. Lord coordinates and teaches courses including BTNY 202 Plant and Fungal Diversity, BTNY 301 Plant Ecology, BTNY 302 Plant Interactions, BTNY 465 Plants and Environment, BTNY 467 New Zealand Plant Ecology & Evolution, and GENE 222 Genes, Chromosomes and Populations. She holds departmental roles as Disabilities Staff Liaison and Kaiāwhina for Māori support, and contributes to public outreach through the Otago Daily Times 'Ask a Scientist' column.

Her research focuses on plant evolutionary ecology, reproduction and pollination biology, rare plant conservation, mycorrhizal fungi in ecological restoration, carbon sequestration by native plants, and traditional Māori uses of plants. As Principal Investigator for the 1 Billion Trees project Ngā Kākano Whakahau with colleagues Matt Larcombe and David Orlovich, she investigates plant, seed, and fungal biology for large-scale native reforestation aimed at ecological restoration and carbon sequestration. Additional interests encompass ecology of rare plants, plant structural complexity and invertebrate diversity, limits to beech forest expansion, effects of weed control on native plants and fungi, alpine pollination mutualisms under climate change, and mātauranga Māori intersecting with textile plants. Notable contributions include designing the 100% native greenroof on the University of Otago's William James Building and developing the Flora Finder smartphone app for identifying common native trees, shrubs, and weeds. Key publications include 'New evidence that blueberry (Vaccinium spp.) has floral traits that enable pollination at night' (Buxton et al., 2025, Arthropod-Plant Interactions), 'Floral temperatures of the southern-most flowering Amorphophallus titanum and seedling growth following self-pollination' (Lord & Lord, 2026, New Zealand Journal of Botany), 'Seeding for native afforestation in the temperate New Zealand forests' (Lord, 2026), and 'Will females remain? Fuchsia excorticata gender ratios and pollen deposition in Dunedin, New Zealand' (Christensen & Lord, 2026, New Zealand Journal of Botany). Her scholarship has garnered over 5,400 citations, impacting conservation, restoration, and ecosystem services.