Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to t ...
n
botanist
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...
. He is the authority on the
plant
Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae excl ...
genera
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...
''
Banksia
''Banksia'' is a genus of around 170 species in the plant family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes, and fruiting "cones" and heads. ''Banksias'' range ...
'' and ''
Dryandra
''Banksia'' ser. ''Dryandra'' is a series of 94 species of shrub to small tree in the plant genus ''Banksia''. It was considered a separate genus named ''Dryandra'' until early 2007, when it was merged into ''Banksia'' on the basis of extensi ...
Alex Segger George was born in Western Australia on 4 April 1939.
Career
George joined the Western Australian Herbarium as a laboratory assistant at the age of twenty in 1959. He worked under Charles Gardner for a year before the latter's retirement, and partly credits him with rekindling an interest in banksias. In 1963 he graduated with a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
from the
University of Western Australia
The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany and various other facilitie ...
, and the following year added a
botany
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...
major
Major ( commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicato ...
. Continuing at the Western Australian Herbarium as a botanist, in 1968 he was seconded as
Australian Botanical Liaison Officer
Australian Botanical Liaison Officer was a secondment position, held for up to twelve months by an Australian botanist (or expert in Australian botany) at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London, England in the United Kingdom. The position was ...
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. George also has an interest in history, especially historical biography of naturalists in Western Australia. He has published a number of articles in the field of history, including a history of the
Royal Society of Western Australia
The Royal Society of Western Australia (RSWA) promotes science in Western Australia.
The RSWA was founded in 1914. It publishes the '' Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia'', and has awarded the Medal of the Royal Society of Western ...
and a tribute to naturalist and historian Rica Erickson. In 1999 he published a book on
William Dampier
William Dampier (baptised 5 September 1651; died March 1715) was an English explorer, pirate, privateer, navigator, and naturalist who became the first Englishman to explore parts of what is today Australia, and the first person to circumnav ...
's naturalist collections in Western Australia entitled ''William Dampier in New Holland: Australia's First Natural Historian''.
George initially specialised in
orchids
Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant.
Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...
, but his focus gradually moved to the
Proteaceae
The Proteaceae form a family of flowering plants predominantly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises 83 genera with about 1,660 known species. Together with the Platanaceae and Nelumbonaceae, they make up the order ...
genera
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...
''
Banksia
''Banksia'' is a genus of around 170 species in the plant family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes, and fruiting "cones" and heads. ''Banksias'' range ...
'' and ''
Dryandra
''Banksia'' ser. ''Dryandra'' is a series of 94 species of shrub to small tree in the plant genus ''Banksia''. It was considered a separate genus named ''Dryandra'' until early 2007, when it was merged into ''Banksia'' on the basis of extensi ...
''. He contributed the text to
Celia Rosser
Celia Elizabeth Rosser (born 1930) is an Australian botanical illustrator, best known for having published ''The Banksias'', a three-volume series of monographs containing watercolour paintings of every ''Banksia'' species.
Born Celia Eliza ...
's three volume ''
The Banksias
''The Banksias'', by Celia Rosser, is a three-volume series of monographs containing paintings of every ''Banksia'' species. Its publication represented the first time such a large genus had been entirely painted by a single botanical artist. It ...
'', published between 1981 and 2001, which contains Rosser's paintings of every ''Banksia'' species. In 1981 ''
Nuytsia
''Nuytsia floribunda'' is a hemiparasitic tree found in Western Australia. The species is known locally as moodjar and, more recently, the Christmas tree or Western Australian Christmas tree. The display of intensely bright flowers during th ...
George Bentham
George Bentham (22 September 1800 – 10 September 1884) was an English botanist, described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century". Born into a distinguished family, he initially studie ...
's '' Flora Australiensis'' appeared in the 1870s. Three years later he published the popular ''The Banksia Book'', and the following year he published ''An Introduction to the Proteaceae of Western Australia''. In 1999, his taxonomy of the ''Banksia'' and ''Dryandra'' genera was published as part of the ''
Flora of Australia
The flora of Australia comprises a vast assemblage of plant species estimated to over 30,000 vascular and 14,000 non-vascular plants, 250,000 species of fungi and over 3,000 lichens. The flora has strong affinities with the flora of Gondwana, ...
series of monographs.
From 1981 to 1993, George lived in
Canberra
Canberra ( )
is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
and worked as Executive Editor for the ''Flora of Australia'' series. His extensive revision of the genus '' Verticordia'', an arrangement which included new taxa, was published in ''Nuytsia'' in 1991. He is now living in
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
again, and works as a botanical and editorial consultant. He is also an Honorary Research Associate with the Western Australian Herbarium, and an Adjunct Associate Professor with the School of Biological Sciences,
Murdoch University
Murdoch University is a public university in Perth, Western Australia, with campuses also in Singapore and Dubai. It began operations as the state's second university on 25 July 1973, and accepted its first undergraduate students in 1975. Its n ...
.
Honours
On 11 June 2012, Dr. George was named a Member of the
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Go ...
for "service to conservation and the environment as a botanist, historian and author, particularly in the area of Australian flora, and through roles with national and international professional organisations."
The
lichen
A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.Buellia georgei'' is named in his honour.
Selected publications
* ''Orchids of Western Australia'' (1969)
* ''A New Eucalypt from Western Australia'' (1970)
* ''A List of the Orchidaceae of Western Australia'' (1971)
* ''Flowers and Plants of Western Australia'' (1973)
* ''The Genus Banksia'' (1981)
* ''The Banksias'' (1981–2002, with
Celia Rosser
Celia Elizabeth Rosser (born 1930) is an Australian botanical illustrator, best known for having published ''The Banksias'', a three-volume series of monographs containing watercolour paintings of every ''Banksia'' species.
Born Celia Eliza ...
)
* ''The Banksia Book'' (1984)
* ''An Introduction to the Proteaceae of Western Australia'' (1985)
* "New taxa, combinations and typifications in Verticordia (Myrtaceae: Chamelaucieae)." ''
Nuytsia
''Nuytsia floribunda'' is a hemiparasitic tree found in Western Australia. The species is known locally as moodjar and, more recently, the Christmas tree or Western Australian Christmas tree. The display of intensely bright flowers during th ...
'' (1991)
* ''Notes on Banksia L.f. (Proteaceae)'' (1996)
* ''Wildflowers of Southern Western Australia'' (1996, with Margaret G. Corrick and Bruce A. Fuhrer)
* ''Banksia'' in ''Flora of Australia: Volume 17B: Proteaceae 3: Hakea to Dryandra'' (1999)
* ''Dryandra'' in ''Flora of Australia: Volume 17B: Proteaceae 3: Hakea to Dryandra'' (1999)
* ''William Dampier in New Holland: Australia's First Natural Historian'' (1999)
* ''The Long Dry: Bush Colours of Summer and Autumn in South-Western Australia'' (2002)