Zine: Ghost grass

The zine ‘Ghost Grass and a Grass Taxonomist: A Story of Disconnection Over Time and Space’ was created in July 2026 by Bat Vorontsova, a grass taxonomist based at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and member of the REPAiR Project team.

Diverse grass species are vital to the pastoral areas that we are examining in the REPAiR Project, including in southwestern Madagascar. Bat works collaboratively in Madagascar to study the grass species and people’s relationships with them.

What stories can grasses tell us?

By looking at the appearance and traits of grasses, and using archive samples and material, Bat’s research also explores the evolution and heritage of grasses within Madagascar’s landscape, and their relationships with similar grasses found elsewhere. The research provides clues to longer histories of savannas and open canopy areas. It can help to inform debates about land use in a country where traditional pastoralism is sometimes marginalised.

Researching these questions can involve searching for grasses which may or may not exist, or which only exist as documents or samples in an archive. Could these ‘ghost’ grasses be found alive one day, or will they remain only known as specimens in a herbarium? How can we understand the life of a plant when we are disconnected from it in time and space?

About the zine

Zines are handmade publications that are designed to be simple and cheap to produce. They allow a space for creativity using collage, illustrations and other handmade text and images. They provide a way to reflect, engage and convey enthusiasm about a topic, or to tell a personal story.

Made from a single folded sheet of paper, this zine documents the feeling of being a grass taxonomist confronted with the mystery of ‘ghost grasses’, focusing on one such species, Digitaria bosseri, samples of which were collected between 1952 and 1962 in southwestern Madagascar.

Botanical illustrations by Lucy T Smith form the backdrop for the story, accompanied by Bat’s personal reflections and drawings. Unfolding the zine reveals a photographic map of the area where the grass samples were originally found.

This zine came about through a research trip in May 2026 and subsequent visits between colleagues at Kew Gardens, Kew Madagascar and the Institute of Development Studies, where we discussed botanical art and zine-making. We are using arts-based methods, including comics, illustration, photography and storytelling, to reflect on our research process and findings, alongside more conventional academic writing and publications.

Kevin and Bat examine grass samples at the Kew herbarium

Transcript of the text

Lucy drew this picture of you

I found your roots and culms and leaves on a shelf in Paris

You were alive in the 1960s in southwestern Madagascar

All these parts resemble other grasses, but there was no Latin name that fit

So I created a name to label you

You will be called Digitaria bosseri

There are bristles under your spikelets!

Are you still there, somewhere in southwestern Madagascar?

Will I ever see you alive?