Cobb, Lorraine (1951 - 2008)

Born 12 April 1951at Kalgoorlie, died on the 5th April 2008 in Perth WA.

Lori was a talented and passionate botanist and botanical artist, who made a significant contribution to the education of many science students in Western Australia. She was also an eminently capable identification botanist who was always willing to share her knowledge of Western Australia’s diverse flora.

Many will be aware of Lorraine’s work as a skilled botanical artist (see Publication list). She initially provided many of the illustrations for the revision of Part 2 of Blackall and Grieve’s How to Know Western Australian Wildflowers and later produced detailed line drawings for many taxonomic papers published in Nuytsia and Australian Systematic Botany. The most notable of these are the meticulous drawings included with the descriptions of new species in the tribe Lasiopetaleae (Malvaceae s.l.) by Carol Wilkins and more recently in the late Jenny Chappill’s extensive revisions of Jacksonia and Gompholobium. Sadly, Jenny did not see either of these treatments published (their completion only made possible by Carol Wilkins) and Lori herself passed away prior to the publication of Gompholobium. Additional illustrations of Lori’s will appear posthumously in the forthcoming revisions of Lasiopetalum and Thomasia.

Throughout her degree Lori also worked part-time with Margaret Lewington and later jenny Chappill on revising Blackall and Grieve’s famous How to Know Western Australian Wildflowers, producing illustrations and constructing keys. After graduating, Lori continued with this and also worked as a Lab demonstrator helping Jenny teach the students about the bewildering diversity of plants in WA.

Lori then went on to be the First Year co-ordinator at UWA working closely with Bill Loneragan and Hai Ngo. After leaving UWA, she began working as a botanical consultant with Libby Mattiske and her team in 2001.

Publications that include Lorraine’s illustrations

Butcher, R. (2001). Sphaerolobium benetectum (Leguminosae: Mirbelieae), a new species from southwest Western Australia. Nuytsia 13(3): 449–455.

Butcher, R. & Chappill, J.A. (2001). Sphaerolobium macranthum (Leguminosae: Mirbelieae) complex revised. Australian Systematic Botany 14(2): 155–173.

Butcher, R. & Chappill, J.A. (2004). A revision of the Sphaerolobium fornicatum complex (Leguminosae: Mirbelieae) from south-west Western Australia. Australian Systematic Botany 17(5): 423–439.

Chappill, J.A., Wilkins, C.F. & Crisp, M.D. (2007). Taxonomic revision of Jacksonia (Leguminosae: Mirbelieae). Australian Systematic Botany 20(6): 473– 623.

Chappill, J.A., Wilkins, C.F. & Crisp, M.D. (2008). Taxonomic revision of Gompholobium (Leguminosae: Mirbelieae). Australian Systematic Botany 21(2): 67– 151.

Davis, R.W. (2004). Two new species of Ptilotus (Amaranthaceae) from Western Australia. Nuytsia 15( 2): 221–226.

Davis, R.W., (2007). A rare and geographically restricted new Ptilotus (Amaranthaceae) from the Pilbara Bioregion of Western Australia. Nuytsia 16(2): 265– 268.

Grieve, B.J.& Blackall, W.E. (1998). How to know Western Australian wildflowers: a key to the flora of the extratropical regions of Western Australia. Part 2. Dicotyledons (Amaranthaceae to Lythraceae). University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, Perth.

Hislop, M. (2007). A new species and a new combination in Acrotriche (Ericaceae: Styphelioideae: Styphelieae), with keys to the Western Australian members of the genus and its closest relative Lissanthe. Nuytsia 16(2): 285–297.

Rye, B.L. (2006). A partial revision of the south-western Australian species of Micromyrtus (Myrtaceae: Chamelaucieae). Nuytsia 16(1): 117–147.

Rye, B.L. & Trudgen, M.E. (in prep). Seorsus, a new genus of Myrtaceae from northern and south-western Australia and Borneo.

Shepherd, K.A. (2007). Tecticornia bibenda (Chenopodiaceae: Salicornioideae), a new C4 samphire from the Little Sandy Desert, Western Australia. Nuytsia 16(2): 383–391.

Shepherd, K.A., Bennett, E.M., Wilkins, C.F. & Sage, L.W. (2006). Lasiopetalum pterocarpum (Malvaceae s.l.: Lasiopetaleae), a new and rare species from southwest Western Australia. Nuytsia 16(1): 175–181.

Wheeler, J.R., Marchant, N.G., Lewington, M. & Graham, L. (2002). Flora of the south west: Bunbury - Augusta - Denmark. Volume 1: Introduction, keys, ferns to monocotyledons. ABRS and W.A. Herbarium in association with UWA Press, Canberra.

Wheeler, J.R., Marchant, N.G., Lewington, M., Graham, L. (2002). Flora of the south west: Bunbury - Augusta - Denmark. Volume 2: Dicotyledons. ABRS and W.A. Herbarium in association with UWA Press, Canberra.

Wilkins, C.F. (1999). Keraudrenia exastia and Keraudrenia katatona (Malvaceae: Byttnerioideae) new species from the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Nuytsia 13: 233– 242.

Wilkins, C.F. & Chappill, J.A. (2001). Taxonomic revision of Hannafordia (Lasiopetaleae: Sterculiaceae (Malvaceae s.l.). Australian Systematic Botany 14(1): 101–124.

Wilkins, C.F. & Chappill, J.A. (2001a). A taxonomic revision of the Western Australian genus Lysiosepalum (Malvaceae: Lasiopetaleae). Nuytsia 13: 571–594.

Wilkins, C.F. & Chappill, J.A. (2002). Seed and seedling morphology and seed anatomy of Lasiopetaleae (Malvaceae s.l. or Sterculiaceae). Australian Systematic Botany 15: 545–563.

Wilkins, C.F. & Chappill, J.A. (2003). Taxonomic revision of Guichenotia (Lasiopetaleae: Malvaceae s.l. or Sterculiaceae). Australian Systematic Botany 16(3): 323–360.

Source: Photo and text extracted from: ASBS Newsletter, No.135, June 2008