Charles Jeffrey (10 April 1934,
Kensington
Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London.
The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...
– 29 March 2022
St Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
) was a British botanist.
He was born in Kensington, London, and went to school in
Walthamstow
Walthamstow ( or ) is a large town in East London, east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London and the Historic counties of England, ancient county of Essex. Situated northeast of Chari ...
. During his
National service he learnt
Russian at the Joint Services School for Linguistics. After his National Service he went up to
Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
Sidney Sussex College (referred to informally as "Sidney") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. The College was founded in 1596 under the terms of the will of Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex (1531–1589), wife ...
, graduating in 1957.
He then worked as a
taxonomist at the
Herbarium
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 ...
,
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, until he retired in 1994. He wrote on
Botanical nomenclature
Botanical nomenclature is the formal, scientific naming of plants. It is related to, but distinct from Alpha taxonomy, taxonomy. Plant taxonomy is concerned with grouping and classifying plants; botanical nomenclature then provides names for the ...
and in 1969 translated 'Flowering plants: origin and dispersal' by
Armen Takhtajan
Armen Leonovich Takhtajan or Takhtajian ( hy, Արմեն Լևոնի Թախտաջյան; russian: Армен Леонович Тахтаджян; surname also transliterated Takhtadjan, Takhtadzhi︠a︡n or Takhtadzhian, pronounced takh-tuh-JA ...
into English. His main research interests were in the
Cucurbitaceae and
Compositae. His interest in plant systematics led him in 1982 to propose a five-kingdom classification.
He also collected plants, such in
Gabon (1957), the
Seychelles (1962/63),
Kenya (1963),
Mongolia (1970), and
Venezuela (1977).
After the International Compositae Conference of July 1994 he moved to St. Petersburg,
Russia, where he was based at the
Komarov Botanical Institute. He worked with Takhtajan in securing funds to renovate its herbarium and library building.
He was on the editorial board of Botanicheskii Zhurnal until 2006.
The genera ''
Jeffreycia
''Jeffreycia'' is a genus of African flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. They are in the tribe Vernonieae.
It is native to Tropical eastern Africa and also Sri Lanka. It is found in the countries of Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozamb ...
'' and ''
Jeffreya
''Jeffreya'' is a genus of African flowering plants in the family Asteraceae.
Species
On Global Compositae Checklist;
* '' Jeffreya palustris'' (O.Hoffm.) Wild - Tanzania, Zambia, Zaire
* '' Jeffreya petitiana'' (Lisowski) Beentje - Burund ...
'' are named for him.
Selected publications
*An introduction to plant taxonomy. (1968). 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, (1982), ISBN 0-521-28775-8.
*Biological nomenclature, 2nd ed. London: Arnold. (1977)
*The Cucurbitaceae of Eastern Asia. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. (1980).
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jeffrey, Charles
1934 births
2022 deaths
People from Kensington
British botanists
Botanists active in Kew Gardens
Alumni of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge