Alison Marjorie Ashby (7 February 1901 – 12 August 1987) was an Australian

botanical art Botanical illustration is the art of depicting the form, color, and details of plant species, frequently in watercolor paintings. They must be scientifically accurate but often also have an artistic component and may be printed with a botanical ...

ist and

plant collector Plant collecting is the acquisition of plant specimens for the purposes of research, cultivation, or as a hobby. Plant specimens may be kept alive, but are more commonly dried and pressed to preserve the quality of the specimen. Plant collecting i ...

Early life

Ashby was born in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

as a youngest daughter of four children, of a

property developer Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to others. R ...

and naturalist

Edwin Ashby Edwin Ashby (2 November 1861 – 8 January 1941) was an Adelaide based Australian property developer and a noted malacologist interested in chitonsWinckworth R. (1942). "Obituary. Edwin Ashby, 1861-1941". ''Proceedings of the Malacological Society ...

and his South Australian-born wife Esther Maria, née Coleman. In 1902, the family moved to a Blackwood farming property called Wittunga situated at the foot of the Adelaide Hills, which later became the

Wittunga Botanic Garden The Wittunga Botanic Garden is one of three Botanic Gardens in Adelaide, South Australia administered by the Botanic Gardens of South Australia, a State Government statutory authority; the other two are the Adelaide Botanic Garden located in the ...

. Ashby was mainly educated at home since she was handicapped by

shyness Shyness (also called diffidence) is the feeling of apprehension, lack of comfort, or awkwardness especially when a person is around other people. This commonly occurs in new situations or with unfamiliar people; a shy person may simply opt t ...

, bad

stutter Stuttering, also known as stammering, is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words, or phrases as well as involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the ...

and

hypothyroidism Hypothyroidism (also called ''underactive thyroid'', ''low thyroid'' or ''hypothyreosis'') is a disorder of the endocrine system in which the thyroid gland does not produce enough thyroid hormone. It can cause a number of symptoms, such as po ...

. Encouraged by her father, she took an interest in native plants and began painting wildflowers.

Career

From 1944, after both her parents had died, Ashby began to make longer trips to collect plants as specimens for various

herbaria A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant 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 sheet of paper (called ...

and also to propagate from seeds and cuttings. She was an active member of the South Australian branch of the

Society for Growing Australian Plants The Australian Native Plants Society (Australia) (ANPSA) is a federation of seven state-based member organisations for people interested in Australia's native Flora of Australia, flora, both in aspects of conservation and in cultivation. A nati ...

. From 1963 to 1977, she made regular car journeys each year to collect and illustrate plants, driving to

Southwest Australia Southwest Australia is a biogeographic region in Western Australia. It includes the Mediterranean-climate area of southwestern Australia, which is home to a diverse and distinctive flora and fauna. The region is also known as the Southwest Aus ...

in the winter and to the

Australian Alps The Australian Alps is a mountain range in southeast Australia. It comprises an interim Australian bioregion,

in the summer. In 1972, she moved to Victor Harbor and died in 1987. Ashby's inherited section of her family's Wittunga property was donated to the

National Trust of South Australia The National Trust of Australia, officially the Australian Council of National Trusts (ACNT), is the Australian national peak body for community-based, non-government non-profit organisations committed to promoting and conserving Australia's Ind ...

in 1957 and became the 32 ha Watiparinga Reserve. Her 1500 botanical paintings were mostly donated to the

South Australian Museum The South Australian Museum is a natural history museum and research institution in Adelaide, South Australia, founded in 1856 and owned by the Government of South Australia. It occupies a complex of buildings on North Terrace in the cultu ...

and are now held in the State Herbarium. Plants named in her honour include '' Acacia ashbyae'' and '' Solanum ashbyae''.

Honours and awards

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

(1960) *

Australian Natural History Medallion The Australian Natural History Medallion is awarded each year by the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria (FNCV) to the person judged to have made the most meritorious contribution to the understanding of Australian Natural History. The idea origina ...

(1975)

References

1901 births 1987 deaths Australian illustrators Flower artists Plant collectors Australian women illustrators Australian women scientists Artists from Adelaide 20th-century Australian botanists 20th-century Australian painters 20th-century Australian women artists 20th-century women scientists Australian collectors Australian Members of the Order of the British Empire {{Australia-painter-stub