Alex George
Encyclopedia
Alexander Segger George (born 4 April 1939) is a Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

n botanist. He is the authority on the plant
Plant
Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...

 genera
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Banksia
Banksia
Banksia is a genus of around 170 species in the plant family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes and fruiting "cones" and heads. When it comes to size, banksias range from prostrate woody shrubs to trees up...

and Dryandra
Dryandra
Banksia ser. Dryandra is a series of 94 species of shrub to small tree in the plant genus Banksia. It was considered a separate genus named Dryandra until early 2007, when it was merged into Banksia on the basis of extensive molecular and morphological evidence that Banksia was paraphyletic with...

. The "bizarre" Restionaceae
Restionaceae
Restionaceae, also called restiads, is the botanical name for a family of rush-like flowering plants native to the Southern Hemisphere.- Description :...

 genus Alexgeorgea
Alexgeorgea
Alexgeorgea is a genus of three plant species found in Western Australia belonging to the family Restionaceae named in honour of the botanist Alex George in 1976...

was named in his honour in 1976.

Biography

Born in East Fremantle
East Fremantle, Western Australia
The Town of East Fremantle is a Local Government Area in the southern suburbs of the Western Australian capital city of Perth, located immediately northeast of the port city of Fremantle and about southwest of Perth's central business district...

, Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

 on 4 April 1939, he joined the Western Australian Herbarium
Western Australian Herbarium
The Western Australian Herbarium is the State Herbarium in Perth, Western Australia, Western Australia. It is part of the State government's Department of Environment and Conservation, and has responsibility for the description and documentation of the flora of Western Australia.The Herbarium is...

 as a laboratory assistant at the age of twenty in 1959. He worked under Charles Gardner
Charles Gardner
Charles Austin Gardner was a Western Australian botanist.Born in Lancaster, England on 6 January 1896, he emigrated to Western Australia with his family in 1909....

 for a year before the latter's retirement, and partly credits him with rekindling an interest in banksias. In 1963 he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 from the University of Western Australia
University of Western Australia
The University of Western Australia was established by an Act of the Western Australian Parliament in February 1911, and began teaching students for the first time in 1913. It is the oldest university in the state of Western Australia and the only university in the state to be a member of the...

, and the following year added a botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...

 major
Academic major
In the United States and Canada, an academic major or major concentration is the academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits....

. Continuing at the Western Australian Herbarium as a botanist, in 1968 he was seconded as Australian Botanical Liaison Officer
Australian Botanical Liaison Officer
Australian Botanical Liaison Officer is a secondment position, held for up to twelve months by an Australian botanist at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London, England in the United Kingdom. The position was created in 1937, and the first ABLO was Charles Gardner...

 at the Royal Botanic Gardens
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, usually referred to as Kew Gardens, is 121 hectares of gardens and botanical glasshouses between Richmond and Kew in southwest London, England. "The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew" and the brand name "Kew" are also used as umbrella terms for the institution that runs...

 in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. George also has an interest in history, especially historical biography of naturalists in Western Australia. He has published a number of articles in the field of history, including a history of the Royal Society of Western Australia
Royal Society of Western Australia
The Royal Society of Western Australia promotes science in Western Australia.The RSWA was founded in 1914. It publishes the Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia, and has awarded the Medal of the Royal Society of Western Australia on an occasional basis since 1924.-External links:**...

 and a tribute to naturalist and historian Rica Erickson
Rica Erickson
Frederica Lucy "Rica" Erickson AM, née Sandilands, was an Australian naturalist, botanical artist, historian, author and teacher. Without any formal scientific training, she wrote extensively on botany and birds, as well as genealogy and general history...

. In 1999 he published a book on William Dampier
William Dampier
William Dampier was an English buccaneer, sea captain, author and scientific observer...

's naturalist collections in Western Australia entitled William Dampier in New Holland: Australia's First Natural Historian.

Career

George initially specialised in orchids, but his focus gradually moved to the Proteaceae
Proteaceae
Proteaceae is a family of flowering plants distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises about 80 genera with about 1600 species. Together with the Platanaceae and Nelumbonaceae they make up the order Proteales. Well known genera include Protea, Banksia, Embothrium, Grevillea,...

 genera
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Banksia
Banksia
Banksia is a genus of around 170 species in the plant family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes and fruiting "cones" and heads. When it comes to size, banksias range from prostrate woody shrubs to trees up...

and Dryandra
Dryandra
Banksia ser. Dryandra is a series of 94 species of shrub to small tree in the plant genus Banksia. It was considered a separate genus named Dryandra until early 2007, when it was merged into Banksia on the basis of extensive molecular and morphological evidence that Banksia was paraphyletic with...

. He contributed the text to Celia Rosser
Celia Rosser
Celia Elizabeth Rosser is a renowned Australian botanical illustrator, best known for having published The Banksias, a three-volume series of monographs containing watercolour paintings of every Banksia species....

's three volume The Banksias
The Banksias
The Banksias, by Celia Rosser, is a three-volume series of monographs containing paintings of every Banksia species. Its publication represented the first time such a large genus had been entirely painted by a single botanical artist. It has been described as "one of the outstanding botanical works...

, published between 1981 and 2001, which contains Rosser's paintings of every Banksia species. In 1981 Nuytsia
Nuytsia (journal)
Nuytsia is a peer-reviewed journal published by the Western Australian Herbarium. It publishes papers on systematic botany, giving preference to papers related to the flora of Western Australia. Nearly twenty percent of Western Australia's plant taxa have been published in Nuytsia. First published...

published his landmark monograph "The genus Banksia L.f. (Proteaceae)
The genus Banksia L.f. (Proteaceae)
The genus Banksia L.f. is a 1981 monograph by Alex George on the taxonomy of the plant genus Banksia. Published by the Western Australian Herbarium as Nuytsia 3, it presented George's taxonomic arrangement of Banksia, the first major taxonomic revision of the genus since George Bentham published...

", the first systematic treatment of the taxonomy of Banksia since George Bentham
George Bentham
George Bentham CMG FRS was an English botanist, characterized by Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century".- Formative years :...

's Flora Australiensis
Flora Australiensis
Flora Australiensis: a description of the plants of the Australian Territory, more commonly referred to as Flora Australiensis, and also known by its standard abbreviation Fl. Austral., is a seven-volume flora of Australia published between 1863 and 1878 by George Bentham, with the assistance of...

appeared in the 1870s. Three years later he published the popular The Banksia Book, and the following year he published An Introduction to the Proteaceae of Western Australia. In 1999, his taxonomy of the Banksia and Dryandra genera was published as part of the Flora of Australia
Flora of Australia (series)
The Flora of Australia is a 59 volume series describing the vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens present in Australia and its external territories...

 series of monographs.

From 1981 to 1993, George lived in Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...

 and worked as Executive Editor for the
Flora of Australia series. His extensive revision of the genus Verticordia
Verticordia
Verticordia, a genus of the Myrtaceae family, are woody shrubs with small and exquisite flowers. They are mostly found in Southwest Australia, with several outlier species in northern regions. A revision of the genus in 1991 produced a classification within Verticordia of 3 subgenera, 24 sections,...

, an arrangement which included new taxa, was published in Nuytsia in 1991. He is now living in Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

 again, and works as a botanical and editorial consultant. He is also an Honorary Research Associate with the Western Australian Herbarium, and an Adjunct Associate Professor with the School of Biological Sciences, Murdoch University
Murdoch University
Murdoch University is a public university based in Perth, Australia. It began operations as the state's second university in 1973, and accepted its first students in 1975...

.

Publications

This is an incomplete list of books, chapters and journal articles authored or co-authored by Alex George. It does not include the numerous volumes of the Flora of Australia series for which George was Executive Editor:
  • Orchids of Western Australia (1969)
  • A New Eucalypt from Western Australia (1970)
  • A List of the Orchidaceae of Western Australia (1971)
  • Flowers and Plants of Western Australia (1973)
  • The Genus Banksia (1981)
  • The Banksias (1981–2002, with Celia Rosser
    Celia Rosser
    Celia Elizabeth Rosser is a renowned Australian botanical illustrator, best known for having published The Banksias, a three-volume series of monographs containing watercolour paintings of every Banksia species....

    )
  • The Banksia Book (1984)
  • An Introduction to the Proteaceae of Western Australia (1985)
  • "New taxa, combinations and typifications in Verticordia (Myrtaceae: Chamelaucieae)." Nuytsia
    Nuytsia (journal)
    Nuytsia is a peer-reviewed journal published by the Western Australian Herbarium. It publishes papers on systematic botany, giving preference to papers related to the flora of Western Australia. Nearly twenty percent of Western Australia's plant taxa have been published in Nuytsia. First published...

    (1991)
  • Notes on Banksia L.f. (Proteaceae) (1996)
  • Wildflowers of Southern Western Australia (1996, with Margaret G. Corrick and Bruce A. Fuhrer)
  • Banksia in Flora of Australia: Volume 17B: Proteaceae 3: Hakea to Dryandra (1999)
  • Dryandra in Flora of Australia: Volume 17B: Proteaceae 3: Hakea to Dryandra (1999)
  • William Dampier in New Holland: Australia's First Natural Historian
  • The Long Dry: Bush Colours of Summer and Autumn in South-Western Australia
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