Henry Steedman (1866–1953) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

-born

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

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 ...

. Born in Scotland in 1866, he emigrated to

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

at the age of 21. He was head gardener at the South Perth Zoological Gardens (now

Perth Zoo Perth Zoo is a zoological park in South Perth, Western Australia, South Perth, Western Australia. The zoo first opened in 1898 and by 2011 housed 1258 animals of 164 species and an extensive botanical collection. It is a full institutional me ...

) for many years, but was retrenched in the late 1920s with the onset of the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. Thereafter he spent his time collecting seeds and specimens of native plants. He made a number of collecting expeditions, including one east to

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 ...

with Ivan Carnaby; another south as far as Ravensthorpe, also with Carnaby; and one along the west coast from Bunbury to

Geraldton Geraldton (Wajarri language, Wajarri: ''Jambinu'', Wilunyu language, Wilunyu: ''Jambinbirri'') is a coastal city in the Mid West (Western Australia), Mid West region of Western Australia, north of the state capital, Perth. As of the , Geraldt ...

. He collected the type specimens for a number of ''

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 ...

'' taxa, including ' (Silver Mallee), ' (Rosebud Gum), ' (Rose Mallee) and ' (Steedman's Gum). He was joint publisher with Joyce Blakely of the second and third of these species, and also ' (Burdett Gum), ' and '. ' was named in his honour, as was '' Acacia steedmanii'' and '' Melaleuca fulgens'' subsp. '' steedmanii''.

Notes

References

* *

Notes

References

Further reading