Dowe, John Leslie (1951 - )

Summary

John Dowe is an expert on Australian palms and those of New Guinea and other islands of the southwest Pacific Ocean. He has published widely on the biogeography, ecology and systematics of palms. His PhD studies were on the genus Livistona, and his major book on Australian palms was published in 2010. Dowe is also well-known for his research in Australian botanical history. He is a research associate at the Australian Tropical Herbarium at James Cook University, and at the Montgomery Botanical Centre, Coral Gables, Florida.

Details

Chronology

1969

Education - Diploma of Applied Art, Central Technical College, Brisbane

1992 - 1997

Career position - Curator of the plant collections, Townsville Botanic Gardens, Townsville City Council

1998

Education - BSc (hons), James Cook University

1998 - 2002

Career position - Assistant Herbarium Curator and Publications Editor, Tropical Plant Sciences, School of Tropical Biology, James Cook University

2001

Education - PhD, James Cook University

2002 - 2009

Career position - Lecturer (Part-time), Tutor and Postgraduate Student Supervisor, School of Tropical Biology, James Cook University

2002 - 2015

Career position - Botanist (Riparian Floristics & Ecology), Australian Centre for Tropical Freshwater Research (later TropWater), James Cook University

2016 -

Career position - Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Australian Tropical Herbarium, James Cook University

2016

Life event - Retired

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Dowe, John Leslie, Australian palms: biogeography, ecology and systematics (Collingwood, Vic.: CSIRO Publishing, 2010), 290 pp. Details
• Dowe, John Leslie, Wendland's palms: Hermann Wendland (1825 - 1903) of Herrenhausen Gardens, Hannover: his contribution to the taxonomy and horticulture of the palms (Arecaceae) (Berlin: Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, 2019), 137 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Dowe, J. L., 'Observations of Palms Made by the Botanist and Explorer Ludwig Leichhardt during the Australian Overland Expedition of 1844-1845', Palms, 49 (4) (2005), 167-182. Details
• Dowe, J. L., 'Ludwig Leichhardt's Australian Plant Collections, 1842-1847', Austrobaileya, 7 (1) (2005), 151-163. Details
• Dowe, J. L., 'Overlooked plant species names associated with the botanical collections of Eugene Fitzalan', Austrobaileya, 9 (3) (2015), 439-44. Details
• Dowe, J. L., 'Walter Hill's palm collection at the Brisbane Botanic Garden, 1855-1881', Palms and cycads, 130 (2016), 11-24. Details
• Dowe, J. L., 'Marianne North's paintings of Australian gardens, 1880-81', Australian garden history, 30 (1) (2018), 12-5. Details
• Dowe, J. L., 'Cairns Botanic Gardens, Queensland, Australia', Palm journal: Palm Society of California, 223 (2022), 14-27. Details
• Dowe, J. L., 'The Gullivers' Acacia Vale Gardens and Nursery, Townsville: a successful experiment in tropical gardening', Australian Garden History, 34 (2) (2022), 12-4. Details
• Dowe, J. L., 'Ferdinand Mueller's unfulfilled quest - early attempts to introduce Verticordia oculata to ornamental horticulture', Australian garden history, 35 (2) (2023), 18-22. Details
• Dowe, J. L., Reiner-Drehwald, M. E., Appelhans, M. S. and Hörandl, E., 'The Wendlands of Herrenhausen Gardens (Hanover, Germany): a study of their Australian plant specimens in the herbarium of the University of Goettingen (GOET)', Australian systematic botany, 32 (2/3) (2019), 177-215, https://doi.org/10.1071/SB18020. Details
• Dowe, J. L.; May, T. W.; Maroske, S.; and Smith, L. T., 'The Wehl family of South Australia and their botanical connections with "Dear Uncle" Baron Ferdinand von Mueller', Swainsona, 34 (1) (2020), 1-79. Details
• Dowe, J.L. (2017)., 'Philip John MacMahon (1857-1911) and the palm collection in the old Brisbane Botanic Gardens', Palms and cycads, 135 (2017), 14-24. Details
• Dowe, John L., 'F. M. Bailey's Ascent of Mt Bellenden-Ker in 1889, and Notes on the Publication Priority of New Vascular Plant Species from The Expedition', Austrobaileya, 7 (2007), 555-566. Details
• Dowe, John L., 'The Australian paintings of Marianne North, 1880 - 1881: landscapes "doomed shortly to disappear"', Cunninghamia, 20 (2020), 1-33. https://doi.org/10.7751/cunninghamia.2020.20.001. Details
• Dowe, John Leslie, 'The botanical collections of Ebenezer Cowley', Austrobaileya, 9 (2) (2014), 263-78. Details
• Dowe, John Leslie, '"I saw a good deal of the country much more that any other collector": an assessment of the botanical collections of Eugene Fitzalan (1830-1911)', Cunninghamia, 15 (2015), 87-133. Details
• Dowe, John Leslie, 'Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, the "Princeps of Australian botany", and a historical account of his Australasian palms', Palms, 61 (1) (2016), 21-40. Details
• Dowe, John Leslie, 'Charles Weldon (de Burgh) Birch (Count Zelling), an unassuming botanical and zoological collector in central and north-eastern Queensland', North Queensland Naturalist, 46 (2016), 16-46. Details
• Dowe, John Leslie, 'Odoardo Beccari and Enrico D'Albertis in Australia and New Zealand, 1878: botanical and zoological collections', Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, 150 (2) (2016), 27-41. Details
• Dowe, John Leslie, 'Walter Hill: his involvement with palms (Arecaceae), and notes on his herbarium and the expeditions of 1872 and 1873', Austrobaileya, 9 (4) (2016), 489-507. Details
• Dowe, John Leslie, 'A family's contribution to Queensland botany: John Howard Simmonds [Snr] (1862 - 1955), Rose Simmonds (née Culpin) (1877 - 1960) and John Howard Simmonds [Jnr] (1901 - 1992)', Austrobaileya, 10 (1) (2017), 168-83. Details
• Dowe, John Leslie, 'Philip John MacMahon: Brisbane Botanic Gardens curator 1889 - 1905 and his vision of Brisbane as a "City of palms"', Queensland History Journal, 23 (8) (2018), 507-21. Details
• Dowe, John Leslie, '"Such superfluity of genera": Ferdinand Mueller's criticism of generic limits in Wendland and Drude's "Palmae australasicae" of 1875', Historical Records of Australian Science, 29 (2) (2018), 82-90. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR17025. Details
• Dowe, John Leslie, 'Ferdinand Mueller in Western Australia in 1877, with notes on his later contributions to the Western Australian flora', Nuytsia, 34 (2023), 157-78. https://doi.org/10.58828/nuy01057. Details
• Dowe, John Leslie and Broughton, Alan D., 'F.M.Bailey's taxonomy of Meston's collections from the Bennenden Ker Expedition of 1904', Austrobaileya, 7 (2008), 675-7. Details
• Dowe, John Leslie and Maroske, Sara, '"These princely plants": Ferdinand Mueller and the naming of Australasian plants', Historical Records of Australian Science, 27 (1) (2016), 13-27, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR15014. Details
• Dowe, John Leslie and Nelson, E. Charles, 'Eugene Fitzalan (1830-1911), an enigmatic botanical collector and plantsman in Queensland', Queensland History Journal, 22 (11) (2015), 795-811. Details
• Dowe, John Leslie and Schweizer, Ernest, 'Livistona victoriae and the North Australian Exploring Expedition. 1855 - 1856', Palms, 66 (2) (2022), 90-102. Details
• Dowe, John Leslie and Short, Philip S., 'The Gullivers' travels: Thomas Allen Gulliver (1848 - 1931), Benjamin John Gulliver (1851 - 1938) and Susannah Gulliver (1857 - 1938): their contribution to Australian natural history and horticulture', Swainsona, 38 (2024), 45-72, https://data.environment.sa.gov.au/Content/Publications/JABG38P045_Dowe.pdf. Details
• Dowe, John Leslie and Taylor, Peter Illingworth, 'The botanical collections of William Hann's Northern Expedition of 1872 to Cape York Peninsula, Queensland', Austrobaileya, 10 (3) (2019), 506-38. Details
• Dowe, John Leslie and Warmington, David, 'Watkins Munro Martin Conservatory, Cairns Botanic Garden, Queensland', Palms, 60 (1) (2016), 41-50. Details
• Dowe, John Leslie; and Maroske, Sara, 'John Dallachy (1804 -71): collecting botanical specimens in Rockingham Bay', Historical Records of Australian Science, 31 (2) (2020), 101-17. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR19013. Details
• Dowe, John Leslie; and Maroske, Sara, 'John Dallachy (1804-71): from gardener to botanical collector', Historical Records of Australian Science, 31 (2) (2020), 87-100. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR19012. Details
• Dowe, John, Maroske, Sara and May, Tom, 'Flowers and fungi: illustrations by Ferdinand von Mueller's nieces', Australian garden history, 32 (April) (2020), 12-5. Details
• Fensham, R. J.; Bean, A. R.; Dowe, J. L.; and Dunlop, C. R., '"This Disastrous Event Staggered Me"; Reconstructing the Botany of Ludwig Leichhardt on the Overland Expedition from Moreton Bay to Port Essington, 1844-5', Cunninghamia, 9 (2006), 451-506. Details

Reviews

• Henderson, M. Helen and Henderson, William G., The greater prize than gold: Augustus Oldfield, nineteenth century botanical collector and ethnographer (2018)
  Dowe, John Leslie, Historical Records of Australian Science, 30 (1), (2019), 61-2, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR19902. Details
• Harrison, Christina, The botanical adventures of Joseph Banks (2020)
  Dowe, John Leslie, Historical Records of Australian Science, 33 (1), (2022), 74, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR22902. Details