David Hungerford Ashton OAM (6 July 1927 – 22 November 2005) was an Australian

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 ecologist. He was the world expert on '' Eucalyptus regnans'' forests, claimed to be the most important timber species in Australia. Ashton was born in Melbourne. He received his

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

in 1949, and a PhD in 1957. He taught for thirty years at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

, from 1962 to 1992, influencing several generations of Victorian botanists and foresters. His professional expertise ranged from angiosperms,

pteridophyte A pteridophyte is a vascular plant (with xylem and phloem) that reproduces by means of spores. Because pteridophytes produce neither flowers nor seeds, they are sometimes referred to as " cryptogams", meaning that their means of reproduction is ...

bryophyte Bryophytes () are a group of embryophyte, land plants (embryophytes), sometimes treated as a taxonomic Division (taxonomy), division referred to as Bryophyta ''Sensu#Common qualifiers, sensu lato'', that contains three groups of non-vascular pla ...

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...

s and

fungi A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one ...

. He was also able to synthesise many biological problems ecologically, especially in Mountain Ash forests including geology, plant and animal species interactions, the effects of fire and climate, insect and seed dispersal. He wrote more than 200 scientific articles in over 20 publications. Since 2000, 'The David Ashton Biodiversity and Ecosystems Award' has been awarded annually for the best Victorian ecological research. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2001, "For service to the science of plant ecology, particularly in the areas of forest regeneration, conservation and management."science.unimelb.edu.au/community/achievers/

References

* * * 1927 births 2005 deaths 20th-century Australian botanists Australian ecologists Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia {{Australia-botanist-stub