Presentation prepared and delivered by Dr Colin Clubbe, Head of Conservation Science at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, at the Joseph Hooker bicentenary conference 'The Making of Modern Botany' at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 30 June 2017. ABSTRACT: During Joseph Hooker’s first expedition to the Antarctic (1839-1843) he stopped at St Helena, Ascension and the Falkland Islands. He made plant collections on each island and these specimens are housed in Kew’s Herbarium. Notable amongst his collections is the type specimen of a unique Ascension Island fern, Anogramma ascensionis, thought extinct until it’s rediscovery in 2009. Hooker’s specimen was central to our rediscovery. This talk will explore Hooker’s legacy in the UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs) through reflections on the ideas he developed on island floras and the specimens he collected in the South Atlantic UKOTs.