Leslie Charles "Larry" Leach (18 November 1909

Southend Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

– 18 July 1996

Pietersburg Polokwane (, meaning "Sanctuary" in Northern SothoPolokwane - The Heart of the Limpopo Province ...

) was a

Rhodesian Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

taxonomic botanist. Leach arrived in

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

in 1938 and carried on business in

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

as an electrical engineer. He developed an interest in succulent plants, particularly

Stapelieae The genera of plants within the tribe Stapelieae are all to varying degrees stem succulents. Many of the species resemble cacti, though are not closely related, as an example of convergent evolution. The stems are often angular, mostly four-ang ...

Euphorbieae Euphorbieae is a tribe of flowering plants of the family Euphorbiaceae. It comprises 3 subtribes and 6 genera. Genera * Subtribe Anthosteminae ** '' Anthostema'' A.Juss. ** ''Dichostemma'' Pierre * Subtribe Euphorbiinae ** ''Cubanthus'' Mi ...

and the genus ''

Aloe ''Aloe'' (; also written ''Aloë'') is a genus containing over 650 species of flowering succulent plants.WFO (2022): Aloe L. Published on the Internet;http://www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-4000001341. Accessed on: 06 Nov 2022 The most wid ...

''. He gave up the business world in 1956 and devoted himself to a self-financed taxonomic study of the three groups with a special interest in the "''

Flora Zambesiaca ''Flora Zambesiaca'' is an ongoing botanical project aimed at achieving a full account of the flowering plants and ferns of the Zambezi River basin covering Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and the Caprivi Strip, and is published by ...

''" region. He collected extensively in

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

and

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...

, also covering

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

South West Africa South West Africa ( af, Suidwes-Afrika; german: Südwestafrika; nl, Zuidwest-Afrika) was a territory under South African administration from 1915 to 1990, after which it became modern-day Namibia. It bordered Angola (Portuguese colony before 1 ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. Between 1972 and 1981 Leach worked as Honorary Botanist of the staff of Rhodesia's National Herbarium and described himself as 'probably Rhodesia's only unpaid civil servant'. He coerced the ''Aloe, Cactus and Succulent Society of Rhodesia'' into producing a taxonomic series supplementary to ''Excelsa''. Consequently, four volumes, including monographs of the

, ''

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'', ''

Stapelia ''Stapelia'' is a genus of low-growing, spineless, stem succulent plants, predominantly from South Africa with a few from other parts of Africa. Several Asian and Latin American species were formerly included but they have all now been transfe ...

'', ''

Huernia The genus ''Huernia'' (family Apocynaceae, subfamily Asclepiadoideae) consists of perennial, stem succulents from Eastern and Southern Africa and Arabia, first described as a genus in 1810.Brown, Robert. 1810. On the Asclepiadeae 11 The flowers ...

'' and ''

Tridentea ''Tridentea'' is a genus of succulent plant in the family Apocynaceae, endemic to southern Africa. Name and history ''Tridentea'' was first described as a genus in 1812, and its name refers to the three "teeth" on each interstaminal segment of ...

'', were authored by Leach and published between 1978 and 1988. In 1981 he settled in South Africa, working at the National Botanic Garden at

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Englan ...

from 1982 to 1989, and finishing his work on the succulent

of Southern Africa, publishing the results in ''Excelsa''. From 1990 he worked as Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Botany at the

University of the North The University of Limpopo is a university in the Limpopo Province, South Africa. It was formed on 1 January 2005, by the merger of the University of the North and the Medical University of South Africa (MEDUNSA). These previous institutions for ...

near

Pietersburg Polokwane (, meaning "Sanctuary" in Northern SothoPolokwane - The Heart of the Limpopo Province ...

, where, before his death, he worked on the succulent

for ''Flora Zambeziaca''. He was awarded the

Harry Bolus Harry Bolus (28 April 1834 – 25 May 1911) was a South African botanist, botanical artist, businessman and philanthropist. He advanced botany in South Africa by establishing bursaries, founding the Bolus Herbarium and bequeathing his library and ...

Medal by the Botanical Society of Southern Africa in 1968, the Rhodesia Scientific Association's gold medal in 1977 and had fellowship of the

Cactus and Succulent Society of America The Cactus and Succulent Society of America (CSSA) is a horticultural society which is based in Claremont, California. History The CSSA was founded in 1929 in Los Angeles County, at Pasadena, California and has grown to encompass over 80 affil ...

conferred in 1983. He is commemorated in numerous specific names such as ''Aloe leachii'' Reynolds, ''Huernia leachii'' Lavranos, ''Dombeya leachii'' Wild, the Asclepiad genus ''

Larryleachia ''Larryleachia'' is a genus of stapeliad succulent flowering plants in the family Apocynaceae. ;Species * '' Larryleachia cactiformis'' (Hooker) Plowes * '' Larryleachia marlothii'' (N.E. Brown) Plowes * '' Larryleachia perlata'' (Dinter) Pl ...

'' and the Choreocolacaceae genus ''Leachiella'' Plowes. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation L.C.Leach when citing a

botanical name A botanical name is a formal scientific name conforming to the '' International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN) and, if it concerns a plant cultigen, the additional cultivar or Group epithets must conform to the ''Intern ...

References

External links

Cactus and Succulent Society of America official websiteThe Larry Leach Collection at the University of Limpopo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leach, Leslie Charles Rhodesian botanists Rhodesian taxonomists 1909 births 1996 deaths Botanists with author abbreviations British emigrants to Southern Rhodesia White Rhodesian people Zimbabwean people of English descent People from Southend-on-Sea 20th-century British botanists