Dirk U. Bellstedt is an Associate Professor in Biochemistry at the University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South Africa. Dirk holds an undergraduate degree in agriculture, and an M.Sc.Agric. and Ph.D.Agric in Biochemistry in Immunology, all from Stellenbosch University. Some of his Ph D work was completed at the Max Planck Institute for Immune Biology in Freiburg, Germany.

Most of his immunology work has been with plants, but he also does some work on ostrich immunology. His plant research includes the detection of plant pathogens, plant hormone determinations and plant host pathogen interactions. Recently, he has become involved in the molecular systamics of plants and is currently working on a molecular phylogeny of the Genus Disa, an African terrestrial orchid genus, in collaboration with Prof Eric H. Harley of the University of Cape Town. He wishes to extend this work to genus Streptocarpus and the genus Saintpaulia in future.

Dirk has a keen interest in South African Flora and lives in an area which falls within the 'fynbos' biome, a rich flora which occurs from about 800 km east to 250 km north of Cape Town and has an incredibly high species density. Afromontane forests form an important component of this biome and the plants of the forest floor such as Streptocarpus, Saintpaulias, Plectranthus and balsams (Impatiens) are of particular interest to him.

He has a large home garden with indigenous plants, including a large collection of Streptocarpus, some Saintpaulias, Plectranthus and Impatiens mainly collected in the wild in South Africa, Tanzania and Kenya. He is a member of the South African Botanical Society and has been the secretary of the Disa Orchid Society of South Africa since 1994.

Dirk may be contacted by e-mail at dub@land.sun.ac.za