Jessup, Laurence Woodward (Laurie)   (1947 - )

Born: Brisbane, Queensland, 5 July 1947;

After finishing Senior, or Year 12 as it is now called, he began studying architecture at The University of Queensland (his father was a practising architect at the time) but transferred to night classes at Qld University of Technology so he could work as an architectural draftsman.

His sister was studying biology at school at the time; and he began reading her textbooks and soon decided he wanted to go back to university to study science.

He eventually graduated with a double major in zoology and botany and did an honours year in botany.

He was employed in various jobs after that but in 1977 a position as a Technical Assistant at the Queensland Herbarium was advertised. He applied and was appointed.

He used his time putting specimens away in the herbarium to familiarise himself with the Queensland flora, and around 1980 he applied for and was appointed to a Botanist Division 2 position.

Not long after that Les Pedley, who was on the Editorial Committee of the Flora of Australia, was looking for volunteers to contribute to Volume 8 of the Flora, and Laurie volunteered to write up Flacourtiaceae.

Subsequently, in the years up to his appointment as ABLO, he contributed to Volumes 22 and 25 and also published some work in Austrobaileya.

When he heard that his nomination for the post of ABLO was approved in October 1991 he was in Hanoi, Vietnam, engaged in a consultancy for FAO.

He and his wife arrived in Kew on 19 August 1993 and served his term as ABLO till 31 August 1994.

On his return to Brisbane he was assigned to the role of supervising the plant identification group and also Editor of Austrobaileya, the Queensland Herbarium journal of plant systematics. He remained editor of Austrobaileya for ten years and continued supervising the plant identification group until retirement in late 2014.

He contributed several plant families to volume 2 of the Flora of Australia and published taxonomic research on Australian species of Symplocaceae, Ebenaceae and Sapotaceae.

After retirement he continued taxonomic research as an Honorary Research Associate until 2018 when he left Brisbane for the Sunshine Coast hinterland.

Source: Extracted from:
George, Alex (Ed), The Australian Botanical Liaison Officer scheme at Kew, 1937-2009, Four Gables Press, Perth, 2023.
Portrait Photo: Extracted from group photo: 1993, Kew Gardens Trust (in above book).

Collecting localities for 'Jessup, L.W.' from AVH (2023)

Data from 4,519 specimens