Susyn M. Andrews (born 1953) is a British

taxonomic 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme of classes (a taxonomy) and the allocation ...

horticulturist Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...

. Her research has focussed on temperate and subtropical woody plants, especially

Holly ''Ilex'' () or holly is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...

and

Lavender ''Lavandula'' (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of perennial flowering plants in the sage family, Lamiaceae. It is native plant, native to the Old World, primarily found across the drier, warmer regions of the Mediterranean ...

Life and work

Andrews went to school at

Rathnew Rathnew () is a village in County Wicklow, Ireland. Located south of the capital Dublin along the N11 road (Ireland), M11 between Dublin and Wexford, it is close to the county town of Wicklow, which is situated to the east. The village is in a ...

County Wicklow County Wicklow ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606 in Ireland, 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the Provinces ...

, Ireland, and studied at the National Botanic Garden, Glasnevin, where she graduated in 1973 with a First Class Honours in Amenity Horticulture and a Silver Medal awarded by the Irish Department of Horticulture. She continued her studies at J.Timm and Co. Pflanzen-Kolle and Johann Bruns Nurseries in Germany and then at the Hillier Arboretum and Nursery in Hampshire. She worked as a horticultural taxonomist at the

Herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant biological specimen, specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sh ...

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1759, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...

, from 1976, initially in the Enquiry Unit, where members of the public could send in plants for identification, becoming Gardens Verifier in 1987. She was promoted to Higher Scientific Officer in 1988 and took part in a collecting expedition to

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...

, Malaysia, concentrating on ''

Ilex ''Ilex'' () or holly is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen or ...

''. She eventually became head of the Horticultural Taxonomy Unit. In 2003 she left Kew becoming a full time freelance Consultant Horticultural Taxonomist in her own practise, and teaching courses on taxonomy for gardeners. Andrews has a long-term taxonomic research project into ''Ilex'' of Southeast Asia and in cultivation, as well as collaborating on

Aquifoliaceae ''Ilex'' () or holly is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen or ...

for Kubitzki's Families & Genera of Vascular Plants. Andrews was co-founder in 1988 and chairman (1988–1998) of ( HORTAX), the Horticultural Taxonomy Group, a member of the editorial committee of

Curtis's Botanical Magazine ''The Botanical Magazine; or Flower-Garden Displayed'', is an illustrated publication which began in 1787. The longest running botanical magazine, it is widely referred to by the subsequent name ''Curtis's Botanical Magazine''. Each of the issue ...

, the senior editor of Taxonomy of Cultivated Plants (1999), is an Honorary Research Associate at Kew, and sat on the ISHS Commission for Nomenclature and Registration. Her work on lavender and holly has been recognised by the Holly Society of America who awarded her the Wolf-Fenton Award (1991) and The Shiu-ying Hu Award (2004). She was awarded the

Veitch Memorial Medal The Veitch Memorial Medal is an international prize awarded annually by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). Goal The prize is awarded to "persons of any nationality who have made an outstanding contribution to the advancement and improvement ...

by the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr ...

(2012), and the George Brown Memorial Award (2016) by the Kew Guild.

Personal life

In 1988 she married Brian Schrire in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Select publications

* Molecular phylogeny and historical biogeography of the genus Ilex L. (Aquifoliaceae). Cuenoud, P., Del Pero Martinez, M.A., Loizeau, P.-A., Spichiger, R., Andrews, S. & Manen, J.-F. (1999). Annals of Botany 85(1): 111–122. * Taxonomy of Cultivated Plants: Third International Symposium. (1999). Andrews, S; A. Leslie; C. Alexander. Kew Publishing, London * The mountain holly (Nemopanthus mucronatus) revisited with molecular data. Powell, M., Savolainen, V., Cuénoud, P., Manen, J.-F. & Andrews, S. (2000). Kew Bulletin 55(2): 341–147. * 9. Corchorus. In Beentje, H.J. & Smith, S.A.L. (eds) Flora of Tropical East Africa: Tiliaceae & Muntingiaceae. Andrews, S. (2001). Rotterdam: A.A. Balkema. 101–103. * Tree of the Year: Nyssa. Andrews, S. (2001). International Dendrology Society Yearbook 2000: 120–158. * Aquifoliaceae. In Soepadamo, E., Saw, L.G. & Chung, R.C.K. (eds). Andrews, S. (2002). The Tree Flora of Sabah & Sarawak 4: 1–27. * Systematic relationship of weeping katsura based on nuclear ribosomal DNA sequences. Li, J., Dosmann, M., Del Tredici, P. & Andrews, S. (2002). HortScience 37(3): 595–598. * The Genus Lavandula. A Botanical Magazine Monograph. Upson, T.M. & Andrews, S. (2004). Kew: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. pp 442.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Andrews, Susyn M. Living people 1953 births British women botanists Botanists active in Kew Gardens Veitch Memorial Medal recipients British horticulturists