Barbara Hulme (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Poulter; 1930–2020) was a

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

, credited with being the first to produce experimental hybrids in the genus ''

Atriplex ''Atriplex'' () is a plant genus of about 250 species, known by the common names of saltbush and orache (; also spelled orach). It belongs to the subfamily Chenopodioideae of the family Amaranthaceae ''s.l.''. The genus is quite variable and w ...

'' or oraches, a genus of wild flower common on seaside

strandlines A high water mark is a point that represents the maximum rise of a body of water over land. Such a mark is often the result of a flood, but high water marks may reflect an all-time high, an annual high (highest level to which water rose that ...

. The Canadian botanist Pierre Michel Taschereau would later name the ''Atriplex X hulmeana'' hybrid after her.

Early life and education

Born in York, Barbara attended Tang Hall Junior School in the Heworth area of the city, before gaining a scholarship to attend

Queen Anne Grammar School Queen Anne Grammar School for Girls was a single-gender female state grammar school in the city of York, England. It began in 1906 as the Municipal Secondary School for Girls and was based in Brook Street. At the end of 1909 the pupils were tra ...

University and research

Barbara studied botany at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

from 1948 where she achieved a

first class degree The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...

. She stayed on to study for a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

, which she gained in 1957 with a thesis entitled "Studies on some British species of Atriplex L". She also assisted botanist

Peter Hadland Davis Peter Hadland Davis FLS, FRSE (18 June 1918 – 5 March 1992) was a British botanist. Life Davis was born on 18 June 1918 in Weston-super-Mare. Initially he was educated at the Nash House, Burnham-on-Sea and then continued his education at Br ...

in his study of the flora of Turkey.

Marriage and later life

It was also during her time at Edinburgh that she met her future husband Ken Hulme, who was then working as a foreman at the Royal Botanical Gardens Edinburgh. The couple married in 1955 and moved first to

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, where Barbara finished writing up her thesis, and then to the Wirral in 1957, where Ken had become the first Director at

Ness Gardens Ness Botanic Gardens are near the cities of Liverpool and Chester on the English-Welsh border in the Wirral Peninsula. They occupy a site of 64 acres overlooking the Dee Estuary. The Ness Botanic Gardens were created by Arthur Kilpin Bulley (1861- ...

University of Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

. After the birth of her three children, Barbara's life revolved around caring for them and other family members but her interest in plants stayed with her for the rest of her life, and many of her holidays with Ken, including a trip to China to attend a symposium about botanic gardens, revolved around plants and gardens.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hulme, Barbara Alumni of the University of Edinburgh 1930 births 2020 deaths English botanists Scientists from York Hybrid plants British women botanists