'Botanical gardens tend to reflect their countries’ histories of empire or influence. Visitors to the New York Botanical Garden, seeking solace amid its native conifers or rows of roses, tend not to realize that, since its inception in 1891, it has been home to a research program focused heavily on the American tropics. Although many of its staff botanists, graduate students and visiting scholars have origins in Latin America and the Caribbean, Dr. Diazgranados’s appointment represents the first time that its chief scientist hails from the same region as so much of its collections.'

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/31/science/new-york-botanical-garden-diazgranados.html