Dr. Jan-Frits Veldkamp, grass expert from the National Herbarium of The Netherlands- Naturalis, discovered seven new records of grass species for the islands of  Flores, Kalimantan, Sumatra, and Sumba, Indonesia during his 3-day  visit to the BIOTROP Herbarium on 5-7 September 2013.

These new records are as follows:

1.Arundinella setosa Trin.: first generic record for Borneo: Kalimantan Tenggara, Kabupaten Banjar, Karang Intan.
2.Chloris pycnothrix Trin.: first for Sumatra, West Sumatra, Solok
3.Cynodon radiatus Roth: first for Sumatra, Lampung and Sumba
4.Digitaria pusilla Ridl.: first for Southeast Kalimantan
5.Digitaria setigera Roth var. calliblepharata (Henrard Veldk.): first for Flores
6.Digitaria ternata (A. Rich.) Stapf : first for Borneo (South Kalimantan)
7.Moorochloa eruciformis (Sm.) Veldk (formerly in Brachiaria): first for Sumba

The review of the grass collection at BIOTROP’s Herbarium was a voluntary work of Dr. Veldkamp during his visit to the Centre after attending the 9th Flora Malesiana Congress on 27-31 August 2013 held in Bogor where he co-authored a presentation by Ms. Ridha Mahyuni et al. from Herbarium Bogoriense on a new record of Rafflesia gadutensis in Sumatra.

While at BIOTROP, he examined numerous grass collections and re-identified 80 of them. He hopes to be back next year to finalise his survey to discover additional interesting records.

Dr. Veldkamp obtained his PhD in plant taxonomy from the University of Leiden in The Netherlands. Other than Indonesia, he has also travelled in Afghanistan, Australia, Ghana, Madeira, Malaysia, Malta, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, and Sri Lanka in the course of his professional practice.

In 1972, in the context of a revision of the herbaceous Gramineae for the Flora Malesiana, Dr. Veldkamp started with what now would be called a kind of data base of the grass holdings of the Herbarium Bogoriense, a project that was finalised this year (2013). In 1992, he was introduced to BIOTROP Herbarium by Dr. Sri S. Tjitrosoedirdjo, the Centre’s curator and weed specialist.

Dr. Veldkamp has authored and co-authored some 330 publications related to plant taxonomy. One genus (Veldkampia Ibaragi & Shiro Kobay., Poaceae) and 11 species in various families have been named after him so far.