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 ...

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 ''Hibbertia hendersonii'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Dilleniaceae and is endemic to the Blackdown Tableland in Queensland. It is an erect shrub with densely hairy foliage, narrow elliptic leaves, and yellow flowers, each usua ...

'', ''

Acacia hendersonii ''Acacia hendersonii'' is a shrub belonging to the genus ''Acacia'' and the subgenus ''Phyllodineae'' that is native to parts of north eastern Australia. Description The glabrous and resinous shrub typically grows to a height of up to and ha ...

'' and ''

Corymbia hendersonii ''Corymbia hendersonii'', commonly known as Henderson's bloodwood, is a species of tree that is endemic to Queensland. It has rough, tessellated bark on the trunk and branches, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, creamy whi ...

'' have been named in his honour.

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1938 births Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Australian Botanical Liaison Officers {{Australia-botanist-stub