Person

Johnson, Lawrence Alexander Sidney (Lawrie) (1925 - 1997)

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    Corymbia ficifolia (F.Muell.) K.D.Hill & L.A.S.Johnson (1995), Red Flowering Gum, 23 January 2013
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Born
26 June 1925
Cheltenham, New South Wales, Australia
Died
1 August 1997
St Leonards, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation
Botanic gardens director and Botanist

Summary

Lawrie Johnson was a taxonomic botanist with an outstanding breadth of interests and expertise. Throughout his career, he maintained a prolific output of publications, and many co-authored publications continued to be published after his death. Lawrence Johnson was attached to the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney from 1948-1997 as Botanist, later Director and then Honorary Research Associate.

Details

Johnson is particularly known for his work on eucalypts. In collaboration with colleagues, he named more than 180 eucalypt species and many new subspecies, and reclassified over 100 species. His purpose was to characterise key groups that typify major lines of evolution among them. Together with Pryor, he found that the eucalypts comprised eight key groups, informally termed subgenera, and devised a new classificatory listing and description of all the species then known. This work included the segregation of Angophora and Corymbia from the genus Eucalyptus as a separate species in 1995. Botanists Don Blaxell and later Ken Hill greatly assisted Lawrence Johnson in his work.


Born Cheltenham, New South Wales, 26 June 1925. Died Sydney, 1 August 1997. AM 1987 Educated University of Sydney (BSc (hons) 1947). Assistant Botanist, National Herbarium of New South Wales, Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney 1948-62, Australian Botanical Liaison Officer, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 1962-63, botanist, National Herbarium of New South Wales, Royal Botanic Gardens, 1964, Botanist, Special Grade 1965, Senior Botanist (later retitled Deputy Chief Botanist) 1968-72, Director, Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney 1972-. Clarke Memorial Medal, Royal Society of New South Wales, Fellow, Australian Academy of Science 1986. Twice president, Linnean Society of New South Wales.

Chronology

1948
Career event - Joined the staff of the National Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney
1952
Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus glaucina (Blakely) L.A.S.Johnson
1962
Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus tetrapleura L.A.S.Johnson
1962
Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus oraria L.A.S.Johnson
1962 - 1963
Career position - Australian Botanical Liaison Officer, Royal Botanic Gardens, kew
1967 - 1968
Career position - President, Linnean Society of New South Wales
1968 - 1972
Career position - Deputy Chief Botanist, Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney
1971
Career event - Published A Classification of the Eucalypts
1971 - 1972
Career position - President, Linnean Society of New South Wales
1972 - 1986
Career position - Director, Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney
1973
Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus sphaerocarpa L.A.S.Johnson & Blaxell
1973
Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus pyrocarpa L.A.S.Johnson & Blaxell
1973
Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus paliformis L.A.S.Johnson & Blaxell
1979
Award - Clarke Medal, Royal Society of New South Wales
1984
Award - Mueller Medal, Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science
1995
Taxonomy event - Corymbia ficifolia (F.Muell) K.D. Hill & L.A.S. Johnson

Related Corporate Bodies

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

Books

  • Pryor, L. D.; and Johnson, L. A. S., A classification of the eucalypts (Canberra: Australian National University, 1971), 102 pp. Details

Book Sections

  • Briggs, B.G.; and Johnson, L.A.S., 'A guide to a new classification of Restionaceae and allied families.' in Australian Rushes: Biology, Identification and Conservation of Restionaceae and allied families, Meney, K.A. & Pate, J.S, ed. (Nedlands, W.A.: University of Western Australia Press, 1999), pp. 25-56. Details
  • Johnson, L. A. S., 'Anderson, Robert Henry (1899-1969), Botanist' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, John Ritchie, ed., vol. 13 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1993), pp. 51-52. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A130061b.htm. Details
  • Johnson, L.A.S; Briggs, B.G., 'Three old southern families: Myrtaceae, Proteaceae and Restionaceae' in Ecological biogeography on Australia, vol. 1, Keast, Allen, ed., vol. 1 (The Hague: W. Junk, 1981), pp. 427-469. Details
  • Linder, H.P.; Briggs, B.G.; and Johnson, L.A.S, 'Restionaceae' in The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants. Vol. 4: Flowering Plants, K. Kubitzki, ed., vol. 4 (Berlin: Springer, 1998), pp. 425-445. Details
  • Linder, H.P.; Briggs, B.G.; and Johnson, L.A.S, 'Ecdeiocoleaceae' in The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants. Vol. 4: Flowering Plants, K. Kubitzki, ed., vol. 4 (Berlin: Springer, 1998), pp. 195-197. Details
  • Linder, H.P.; Briggs, B.G.; and Johnson, L.A.S, 'Anarthriaceae' in The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants. Vol. 4: Flowering Plants, K. Kubitzki, ed., vol. 4 (Berlin: Springer, 1998), pp. 19-21. Details
  • Pryor, Lindsay Dixon; Johnson, Lawrence Alexander Sidney, 'Eucalyptus, the universal Australian' in Ecological biogeography of Australia (Monographiae biologicae vol.41), Keast, A., ed., vol. 1 (The Hague: W. Junk, 1981), pp. 499 - 536. Details

Journal Articles

  • Anon, 'Publications of L. A. S. Johnson: 1949-1995', Telopea, 6 (4) (1996), 507-10. Details
  • Benson, Doug, 'L. A. S. Johnson: taxonomist, ecologist, conservationist - botanist sens. Lat.', Telopea, 6 (4) (1996), 521-6. Details
  • Briggs, Barbara G., 'L. A. S. Johnson - a botanical career', Telopea, 6 (4) (1996), 511-20. Details
  • Briggs, Barbara G., 'Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson 26 June 1925 - 1 August 1997', Telopea, 7 (3) (1997), 177-180. Details
  • Briggs, Barbara G., 'Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson 1926-1997', Historical Records of Australian Science, 13 (4) (2001), 475-494. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR0011340475. Details
  • Briggs, Barbara Gillian; Johnson, Lawrie Alexander Sidney, 'Evolution in the Myrtaceae - evidence from inflorescence structure', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 102 (4) (1979), 157-256. Details
  • Hill, K.D.; and Johnson, L.A.S, 'Systematic studies in the eucalypts 5. New taxa and combinations in Eucalyptus (Myrtaceae) in Western Australia.', Telopea, 4 (4) (1992), 561-634. Details
  • Hill, K.D.; and Johnson, L.A.S, 'Systematic studies in the eucalypts 6. A revision of the coolibahs, Eucalyptus subgenus Symphyomyrtus section Adnataria series Oliganthae subseries Microthecosae (Myrtaceae).', Telopea, 5 (4) (1994), 743-771. Details
  • Hill, K.D.; and Johnson, L.A.S, 'Systematic studies in the eucalypts 8. A review of the Eudesmioid eucalypts, Eucalyptus subgenus Eudesmia. Telopea', Telopea, 7 (4) (1998), 375-414. Details
  • Hill, K.D.; and Johnson, L.A.S, 'Systematic studies in the eucalypts 9. A review of series Sociales (Eucalyptus subgenus Symphyomyrtus, Section Bisectaria, Myrtaceae).', Telopea, 8 (2) (1999), 165-218. Details
  • Hill, K.D.; and Johnson, L.A.S., 'Systematic studies in the eucalypts 4. New taxa in Eucalyptus (Myrtaceae).', Telopea, 4 (2) (1991), 321-349. Details
  • Hill, K.D.; and Johnson, L.A.S., 'Systematic studies in the eucalypts 3. New taxa and combinations in Eucalyptus (Myrtaceae).', Telopea, 4 (2) (1991), 223-267. Details
  • Hill, K.D.; and Johnson, L.A.S., 'Systematic studies in the eucalypts 10. New tropical and subtropical eucalypts from Australia and New Guinea (Eucalyptus, Myrtaceae)', Telopea, 8 (4) (2000), 503-540. Details
  • Hill, K.D.; and Johnson, Lawrence A.S., 'Systematic studies in the eucalypts 7. A revision of the bloodwoods, genus Corymbia (Myrtaceae)', 6 (2-3) (1995), 185-504. Details
  • Hill, K.D.; Johnson, L. A.S.; and Blaxell, D.F., 'Systematic studies in the eucalypts 11. New taxa and combinations in Eucalyptus Section Dumaria (Myrtaceae)', Telopea, 9 (2) (2001), 259-318. Details
  • Hull, David L., 'Rainbows in retrospect: L. A. S. Johnson's contributions to taxonomic philosophy', Telopea, 6 (4) (1996), 527-39. Details
  • Humphries, C. J.; Ladiges, P. Y.; and Brooker, M. I. H., 'Cladistic and biogeographic analysis of western Australian species of Eucalyptus L'Herit., informal subgenus Monocalyptus Pryor & Johnson.', Australian Journal of Botany, 35 (3) (1987), 251. Details
  • Johnson, L. A. S., 'Myrtacea. Eucalyptus sieberi L.A.S.Johnson: Studies in the Taxonomy of Eucalyptus', Contributions from the New South Wales National Herbarium, 3 (3) (1962), 125. Details
  • Johnson, L. A. S., 'Rich and Unfamiliar Flora', Australian Natural History, 19 (2) (1977), 58-61. Details
  • Johnson, L.A.S.; and Briggs, B.G., 'Myrtales and Myrtaceae - a phylogenetic analysis.', Annal of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 71 (1984), 700-756. Details
  • Johnson, L.A.S.; and Hill, K.D., 'Systematic studies in the eucalypts 2. A revision of the gimlets and related species: Eucalyptus extracodical series Salubres and Annulatae (Myrtaceae).', Telopea, 4 (4) (1991), 201-222. Details
  • Johnson, Lawrence A.S.; and Blaxell, Donald F., 'New Taxa and Combinations in Eucalyptus - 4.', Telopea, 1 (6) (1980), 395-397. Details

Resources

See also

Digital resources

Title
Corymbia ficifolia (F.Muell.) K.D.Hill & L.A.S.Johnson (1995), Red Flowering Gum, detail of leaves
Type
Image
Date
23 January 2013
Place
Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne

Details

Title
Corymbia ficifolia (F.Muell.) K.D.Hill & L.A.S.Johnson (1995), Red Flowering Gum, detail of flowers
Type
Image
Date
23 January 2013
Place
Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne

Details

Title
Corymbia ficifolia (F.Muell.) K.D.Hill & L.A.S.Johnson (1995), Red Flowering Gum
Type
Image
Date
23 January 2013
Place
Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne

Details

Rosanne Walker; Christine Moje & Neville Walsh

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