We are delighted to welcome our Honorary Patron since 2001, Phillip Cribb who is a taxonomic botanist and currently an Honorary Research Fellow at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, from where he retired in 2006 as Deputy Keeper of the Herbarium. He has specialises in orchids and is the author of over 450 scientific papers and several books on them. Since 1970, he has participated in and led botanical expeditions in many tropical countries and is currently working on African and Madagascan orchids. He started the Sainsbury Endangered Orchid project at Kew in 1983 and has a continuing interest in orchid conservation. In 2007 he was awarded the Linnaean Medal for Botany. Since 1979, he has led many botanical tours, mainly in Europe and China but also in New Guinea and tropical Africa. He is the co-author of Kew’s Field Guide to European and Mediterranean Orchids.