Colombian agricultural engineer specialising in American bamboos. Ximena Londoño was born in Cali, graduated in agricultural engineering from the National University of Colombia in 1983, and from there went on to study bamboo taxonomy under the guidance of Thomas Soderstrom of the Smithsonian Institution. Since then she has received numerous short-term grants from various funding bodies, including the Smithsonian Institution, the Colombian Funds of Scientific Research and Special Projects, the National Geographic Society, the American Bamboo Society, and the International Network of Bamboo and Rattan, to collect and research American bamboos, especially the genus Guadua. Her primary field work has been in Latin America but she has also visited Indonesia, China and India to study their bamboos. In addition to Bambusoideae, she also collects Gesneriaceae. Ximena Londoño is the author of several scientific papers and co-author of the Smithsonian Press Book American Bamboos (1999), and is currently an associate researcher at the National University of Colombia and the Research Institute of Valle del Cauca (INCIVA). She has also served for many years as president of the Colombian Bamboo Society. She works as a consultant and promoter for diverse Guadua projects in Colombia and Latin America, as well as being the owner and manager of an organic farm in the department of Quindìo, Colombia, where she grows coffee, bananas, tropical flowers and bamboo. Aulonemia ximenae L.G. Clark, Judz. & C.D. Tyrrell and Chusquea londoniae L.G. Clark are both named for her.

Sources:
Personal communication, March 2008.