Clifford David Boomsma (20 October 1915 – 13 January 2004) was an Australian

forester A forester is a person who practises forest management and forestry, the science, art, and profession of managing forests. Foresters engage in a broad range of activities including ecological restoration and management of protected areas. Fores ...

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and botanical collector. Boomsma was born in Gawler in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

in 1915 and became a

ward of the state In law, a ward is a minor or incapacitated adult placed under the protection of a legal guardian or government entity, such as a court. Such a person may be referenced as a "ward of the court". Overview The wardship jurisdiction is an ancient ju ...

at three years of age. He completed his early schooling in Mylor in the Adelaide hills He was later sponsored and attended high school at Scotch College as a boarder. Following graduation he attended the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. Its main campus in the Adelaide city centre includes many Sa ...

completing a Bachelor of Science then went on to study Forestry at the Australian Forestry School, Canberra where he graduated in 1939. He worked at Penola forest and then at Mount Burr forests for the Department of Woods and Forests and was eventually posted to the Adelaide head office. He later completed his master's degree on the ecology of

Fleurieu Peninsula The Fleurieu Peninsula ( ; locally mainly ) is a peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia located south of the state capital of Adelaide city centre, Adelaide. History Before British colonisation of South Australia, the western s ...

as well as other regions in South Australia and continued working as a forester for the Woods and Forests department for the remainder of his career and wrote several books on the native trees and ecology of his home state. His main areas of interest were species of ''

Acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as wattles or acacias, is a genus of about of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa, South America, and Austral ...

'' and ''

Eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of more than 700 species of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. Most species of ''Eucalyptus'' are trees, often Mallee (habit), mallees, and a few are shrubs. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalyp ...

''. He authored two books ''Tree planting guide for rural South Australia'' in 1966 and ''Native trees of South Australia'' in 1972 both published by the Woods and Forests department. He established an

arboretum An arboretum (: arboreta) is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees and shrubs of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arbor ...

devoted to the endemic South Australian

eucalypts Eucalypt is any woody plant with capsule fruiting bodies belonging to one of seven closely related genera (of the tribe Eucalypteae) found across Australia: ''Eucalyptus'', ''Corymbia'', ''Angophora'', '' Stockwellia'', ''Allosyncarpia'', '' E ...

near Monarto in the Adelaide hills in the 1980s. Boomsma described and published 12 species and subspecies as well as making two new combinations. Selected species include; '' E. mannensis'', '' E. sparsa'', '' E. yumbarrana'', '' E. eremicola'', '' E. yalatensis''. '' E. flindersii'' , '' E. calcareana'' and '' E. wyolensis''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boomsma, Clifford David 1915 births 2004 deaths 20th-century Australian botanists Australian foresters