Rodney John Francis Henderson (born 1938) 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 ...
, specialising in
taxonomy
Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification.
A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...
who worked for more than 48 years for the
Queensland Public Service
The Queensland Public Service provides public services to the people of Queensland, Australia on behalf of the Government of Queensland. Typically these are services that are deemed important by the government and which the government believes ...
, 41 of those years at the
Queensland Herbarium until he retired in 2002. The
families
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideall ...
he studied included the
Solanaceae
The Solanaceae , or nightshades, are a family of flowering plants that ranges from annual and perennial herbs to vines, lianas, epiphytes, shrubs, and trees, and includes a number of agricultural crops, medicinal plants, spices, weeds, and orn ...
,
Liliaceae
The lily family, Liliaceae, consists of about 15 genera and 610 species of flowering plants within the order Liliales. They are monocotyledonous, perennial, herbaceous, often bulbous geophytes. Plants in this family have evolved with a fair ...
,
Euphorbiaceae and
Rubiaceae. There are about 3,500 labelled specimens in Australian
herbaria collected by Henderson, sometimes with other botanists. He was often sought after as an expert in the application of the
International Code of Botanical Nomenclature because of his knowledge of the code and of botanical
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
and
Greek.
Henderson was actively involved with the
Australian Systematic Botany Society
Australian(s) may refer to:
Australia
* Australia, a country
* Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia
** European Australians
** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists
** Aboriginal Aus ...
from its formation in 1973
and was its second vice-president. He was appointed
Australian Botanical Liaison Officer
Australian Botanical Liaison Officer was a secondment position, held for up to twelve months by an Australian botanist (or expert in Australian botany) at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London, England in the United Kingdom. The position was c ...
to
Kew Gardens
Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...
for the 1978–79 term. His core activities at the Queensland Herbarium were the maintenance of the plant catalogues, the Queensland Plant Census and editing the journal
Austrobaileya.
He is the author of books and papers, especially of plants in the genus ''
Dianella'' and the species ''
Hibbertia hendersonii'', ''
Acacia hendersonii''
and ''
Corymbia hendersonii''
have been named in his honour.
References
External links
1938 births
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
Australian Botanical Liaison Officers
{{Australia-botanist-stub