Frederick William Humphreys (11 November 1907 – 3 September 1967) was an Australian government official and an amateur photographer and

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 ...

whose work culminated in the posthumous publication of ''The Banksia Book'', a book on the flowering plant genus ''

Banksia ''Banksia'' is a genus of around 170 species of flowering plants in the family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes, and woody fruiting "cones" and head ...

''. He discovered '' Banksia grossa'' in the

Stirling Range The Stirling Range or Koikyennuruff is a range of mountains and hills in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, south-east of Perth. It is over wide from west to east, stretching from the highway between Mount Barker and Cranbro ...

in 1967.

Life and career

Humphreys was born in

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie-Boulder (or just Kalgoorlie) is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder as the surroundi ...

. He attended

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

, where he participated in track and running events. He graduated with a Diploma in Commerce in 1934. He took a position with the

Commonwealth Public Service The Australian Public Service (APS) is the federal civil service of the Commonwealth of Australia responsible for the public administration, public policy, and public services of the departments and executive and statutory agencies of the Gov ...

in Immigration and Social Services. He later returned to Western Australia as State Director of Social Services. Both Humphreys and his wife Evelyn were keen members of the

Wildflower Society of Western Australia The Wildflower Society of Western Australia (Inc.) (WSWA) is a member of the Australian Native Plants Society (Australia) (ANPSA(A)). In each of the other states of Australia, there is a region of the ANPS(A) (each with slightly differing names) ...

. Author Alex George said Humphreys conceived the idea of a series of popular books on plants such as ''Banksias'', '' Dryandras'', and '' Verticordias'', and endeavoured to photograph every species of ''Banksia''. However, he died before he could accomplish this. His enthusiasm prompted George to finish a book on banksias, after the conclusion of his monograph " The genus ''Banksia'' L.f. (Proteaceae)". Humphreys donated his slides of flowers to the

Western Australian Herbarium The Western Australian Herbarium is the state Herbarium, situated in Perth, the capital of Western Australia. It houses a collection of more than 845,000 dried specimens of plants, algae, bryophytes (mosses, liverworts and hornworts), lichens, fu ...

and the

Australian National Botanic Gardens The Australian National Botanic Gardens (ANBG) is a heritage-listed botanical garden located in , Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Established in 1949, the Gardens is administered by the Australian Government's Departme ...

. At the time of his death the Social Services Department was located in the building which bore his name, Humphreys House. The F.W. Humphreys Perpetual Trophy at UWA is named in his honor. American botanist

Sherwin Carlquist Sherwin John Carlquist FMLS (July 7, 1930 - December 1, 2021) was an American botanist and photographer. Education He received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1952 and a Ph.D. in botany in 1956, also at B ...

named a

triggerplant ''Stylidium'' (the triggerplants or trigger plants) is a genus of dicotyledonous plants that belong to the family Stylidiaceae. The genus name ''Stylidium'' is derived from the Greek ''στύλος'' or ''stylos'' (column or pillar), which refers ...

from the

Great Victoria Desert The Great Victoria Desert is a sparsely populated desert ecoregion and Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, interim Australian bioregion in Western Australia and South Australia. History In 1875, British-born Australian explore ...

, '' Stylidium humphreysii'', in his honour in 1969.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Humphreys, Fred 1907 births 1967 deaths 20th-century Australian botanists Australian public servants People from Kalgoorlie University of Western Australia alumni