Betsy Rivers Jackes (born 1935) is an Australian

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 ...

, researcher,

taxonomist In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining ( circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon) and these groups are given ...

and author. Her research interests are the plants in the families

Myrsinaceae Myrsinoideae is a subfamily of the family Primulaceae in the order Ericales. It was formerly recognized as the family Myrsinaceae, or the myrsine family, consisting of 35 genera and about 1000 species. It is widespread in temperate to tropical ...

and

Vitaceae The Vitaceae are a family of flowering plants, with 14 genera and around 910 known species, including common plants such as grapevines (''Vitis'' spp.) and Virginia creeper (''Parthenocissus quinquefolia''). The family name is derived from the ge ...

Education

Jackes completed her BSc in 1957, followed by her MSc in 1959, at the University of New England (UNE) in

Armidale Armidale is a city in the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia. Armidale had a population of 24,504 as of June 2018. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. It is the administrative centre for the Northern Tablelands region. It ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. She won a

Fulbright Scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

to study in the United States and took up a position as a research scholar at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

(UC), where she earned her PhD in 1961.

Career

Jackes initially began work as a tutor in botany at UNE in 1957, before taking on the same role at the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

(UQ) in 1963. From 1973 through to 2018 she was a lecturer at

James Cook University James Cook University (JCU) is a public university in North Queensland, Australia. The second oldest university in Queensland, JCU is a teaching and research institution. The university's main campuses are located in the tropical cities of Cairn ...

(JCU) in

Townsville, Queensland Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 180,820 as of June 2018, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland; it is unofficially considered its capital. Estimated resident population, 3 ...

, where she headed the Tropical Plant Sciences Department, and was deputy head of the School of Tropical Biology. She is the author (or co-author) of many papers, articles, and environmental consultancy reports, and has published a number of books. On Thursday, 24 March 2021, Jackes was presented one of the highest JCU awards, a Doctor of Science ''honoris causa'', the sixth awardee for that degree at the university. This was for her sustained contributions to discovering and cataloguing tropical flora in northern Queensland, continued work with plant systematics and the ecology of the tropical flora. Jackes was appointed a

Member of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

in the

2023 Australia Day Honours The 2023 Australia Day Honours are appointments to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by Australian citizens. The list was announced on 26 January 2023 by the Governor General of Australia, David Hurley. The Australia ...

Legacy

, the

International Plant Names Index The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) describes itself as "a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of seed plants, ferns and lycophytes." Coverage of plant names is best at the rank of species and genus. It inclu ...

(IPNI) list 43 species of plants that were authored by her. The following is a list of those with articles on this wiki: * ''

Clematicissus opaca ''Clematicissus opaca'', called small-leaf grape, pepper vine, small-leaved water vine, yaloone and wappo wappo, is a small vine endemic to Australia. Pepper vine is naturally found in rocky locales in monsoon forest, littoral rainforest and open ...

'' * '' Backhousia tetraptera'' * '' Dendrocnide cordifolia'' * ''

Myrsine howittiana ''Myrsine howittiana'', the brush muttonwood or muttonwood, is a shrub or small tree in the family Primulaceae. The species is endemic to eastern Australia. It grows to between 3 and 10 metres in height and has smooth, often whitish, bark. Th ...

'' * ''

Myrsine richmondensis ''Myrsine richmondensis'', known as the ripple leaf muttonwood or purple-leaf muttonwood, is a very rare shrub of coastal areas of New South Wales; from Coraki on the Richmond River north to Mount Warning. Description A shrub to small tree t ...

'' Plants named in honour of Jackes include: * Betsy's wattle (''

Acacia jackesiana ''Acacia jackesiana'', also known as Betsy's wattle, is a shrub belonging to the genus ''Acacia'' and the subgenus ''Juliflorae'' that is native to north eastern Australia. It is named for the botanist Dr Betsy Jackes (1935–), a professor a ...

'' (Pedley)), a north Queensland floral native with a limited range west and north of Townsville; and * the

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

ised ''Cissocarpus jackesiae'' (Rozefelds) (also listed as ''Cissocarpus jackesii''), a species of grape in the family

native to Australia. The genus ''Cissocarpus'' was formed with the grouping of seeds from the

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...

silcrete Silcrete is an indurated (resists crumbling or powdering) soil duricrust formed when surface soil, sand, and gravel are cemented by dissolved silica. The formation of silcrete is similar to that of calcrete, formed by calcium carbonate, and ferric ...

Selected publications

Research papers

For a more comprehensive list, see * * * * *

Books

For a more comprehensive list, see * * * *

Articles

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackes, Betsy Rivers 1935 births Living people Members of the Order of Australia 20th-century Australian botanists 20th-century Australian women scientists