Gillian Sally Bidgood (13 April 1948, in

Corbridge Corbridge is a village in Northumberland, England, west of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle and east of Hexham. Villages nearby include Halton, Northumberland, Halton, Acomb, Northumberland, Acomb, Aydon and Sandhoe. Etymology Corbridge was kno ...

– 18 March 2018, in Hammersmith) was a British botanist and

plant collector Plant collecting is the acquisition of plant specimens for the purposes of research, cultivation, or as a hobby. Plant specimens may be kept alive, but are more commonly dried and pressed to preserve the quality of the specimen. Plant collecting i ...

noted for her study of the flora of

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

, and

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

, particularly ''

Bignoniaceae Bignoniaceae is a family of flowering plants in the order Lamiales commonly known as the bignonias or trumpetvines.Vernon H. Heywood, Richard K. Brummitt, Ole Seberg, and Alastair Culham. ''Flowering Plant Families of the World''. Firefly Book ...

''. She attended Ackworth School (1959-1965),

Haydon Bridge Haydon Bridge is a village in Northumberland, England, with a population of about 2000, the civil parish Haydon being measured at 2,184 in the Census 2011. Its most distinctive features are the two bridges crossing the River South Tyne: the pic ...

Technical School and then

Froebel College Froebel College is one of the four constituent colleges of the University of Roehampton. History The college was founded as a women's teacher training college in 1892 by followers of Friedrich Fröbel Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel or Froe ...

Roehampton Roehampton is an area in southwest London, in the Putney SW15 postal district, and takes up a far western strip running north to south of the London Borough of Wandsworth. It contains a number of large council house estates and is home to the U ...

. Bidgood worked at the

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,10 ...

from 1973 to 2008, and over the course of her career took part in gathering over 13,000 specimens of African plants, describing at least two dozen species. She was also active as a

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

ist, being both a branch secretary and branch chair for Prospect at Kew.

Coleus ''Coleus'' is a genus of annual or perennial herbs or shrubs, sometimes succulent, sometimes with a fleshy or tuberous rootstock, found in the Old World tropics and subtropics. The relationship among the genera ''Coleus'', '' Solenostemon'' and ...

sallyae (A.J.Paton) A.J.Paton,

Cyphostemma ''Cyphostemma'' is a flowering plant genus in the family Vitaceae, with around 250 species distributed throughout the tropics and subtropics. These species are caudiciform and used to belong to the genus ''Cissus''. The genus name comes from Gre ...

bidgoodiae Verdc., Dyschoriste sallyae Vollesen,

Erythrocephalum ''Erythrocephalum'' is a genus of African flowering plants in the daisy family The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Comm ...

sallyae Beentje, Fuirena bidgoodiae Hoenselaar & Muasya,

Pavetta ''Pavetta'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It comprises about 360 species of trees, evergreen shrubs and sub-shrubs. It is found in woodlands, grasslands and thickets in sub-tropical and tropical Africa and Asia. The plan ...

bidgoodiae Bridson are named for her. She was born Gillian Sally Lee, and married Clive Bidgood in 1976 at

St Anne's Church, Kew St Anne's Church, Kew, is a parish church in Kew in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. The building, which dates from 1714, and is Grade II* listed, forms the central focus of Kew Green. The raised churchyard, which is on three side ...

. She retired in 2008 and died on 18 March 2018.

References

1948 births 2018 deaths 21st-century British botanists 20th-century British botanists 20th-century British women scientists British women botanists People from Corbridge Scientists from Northumberland Botanists active in Kew Gardens People educated at Ackworth School Alumni of the University of Roehampton {{UK-botanist-stub