Vernon Hilton Heywood (born 24 December 1927 - died 2022) was a British biologist. He specialised in medicinal and aromatic plants, and the conservation of wild relatives of plants. Heywood was appointed as lecturer at University of Liverpool, UK in 1955, promoted to senior lecturer in 1960 and to reader in 1963. He was awarded the second established Chair in Botany in 1964 and left Liverpool in 1968. He was Professor of Botany and Head of Department at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

until 1987 when he became founder and director of

Botanic Gardens Conservation International Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) is a plant conservation biology, conservation Charitable organization, charity based in Kew, Surrey, England. It is a membership organisation, working with 800 botanic gardens in 118 countries, who ...

(BGCI). In 1987 he was awarded the

Linnean Medal The Linnean Medal of the Linnean Society of London was established in 1888, and is awarded annually to alternately a botanist or a zoologist or (as has been common since 1958) to one of each in the same year. The medal was of gold until 1976, and ...

of the

Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

Planta Europa Planta Europa is a network of independent organisations, non-governmental and governmental, working together to conserve European wild plants and fungi. It brings together more than 70 member organisations from 37 European countries. The Planta Eu ...

honored him with their Linnaeus award at their fifth conference, held in 2007 in

Cluj Napoca ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = Counties of Romania, County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Subdivisions of Romania, Status , subdivision_name2 ...

. The book ''Taxonomy and Plant Conservation'' (Cambridge University Press, 2006, Etelka Leadlay and Stephen Jury, eds.) was dedicated as a tribute to Heywood in honor of his 75th birthday.Publisher's catalog entry with text of frontmatter dedicating the book to Heywood
His publications include several major books including ''Principles of angiosperm taxonomy'' (1963), ''Flowering Plants of the World'', and its update ''Flowering Plant Families of the World'' (with Richard K. Brummitt,

Alastair Culham Alastair Culham (born 1965) is an English botanist. He is a member of the staff of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Reading

and Ole Seberg) as well as the Global Biodiversity Assessment.

References

Bibliography

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External links

Heywood's publications from Amazon.com
1927 births 2022 deaths Linnean Medallists Academics of the University of Reading British botanists {{UK-scientist-stub