Macfarlane, Terry Desmond   (1953 - )

Born in Perth, WA, 16 April 1953;

Terry gained honours in Botany at The University of Western Australia in 1976, then a PhD at the Australian National University in Canberra in 1980.

After further study at Southampton University, UK, on the use of computers in taxonomy, he was appointed as botanist at the Western Australian Herbarium in 1981.

His research interests were in the families Colchicaceae (Wurmbea), Xanthorrhoeaceae (Lomandra), Haemodoraceae (Haemodorum), Poaceae (Ammphipogon, Danthonia (Rytidosperma) and Fabaceae (Pultenaea and related genera). He was instrumental in the adoption of barcodes for electronic tracking of herbarium specimens, and in the development of specimen databases.

He was selected for the position of ABLO at Kew, UK, for a one-year term and arrived in Britain with his wife Hilary and their children on 17 August 1989. He had several days overlap with the previous ABLO, Karen Wilson.

Returning to WA after his time at Kew he continued his career at the Western Australian Herbarium.

In 1992 he moved to the Departmental Research Centre in Manjimup, remaining a member of the Herbarium staff. His work there involved extensive field work, especially in the Lake Muir-Lake Unicup wetlands and more generaly on assessing the conservation status of putative rare species. The wetland work led to an interest in aquatic groups including Hydatellaceae and Potamogetonaceae and during these years he also renewed his interest in Wurmbea with extensive field work in southern WA during which many new species were recognised.

In 2015 he moved back to the Herbarium in Perth for family and work reasons.

He is associate editor of the Herbarium's scientific journal Nuytsia and a member of a team that prepares the national list of plants in Australia known as the Australian Plant Census.

Source: Extracted from:
George, Alex (Ed), The Australian Botanical Liaison Officer scheme at Kew, 1937-2009, Four Gables Press, Perth, 2023.
Staff profile: https://science.dbca.wa.gov.au/people/?sid=68
Portrait Photo: Western Australian Herbarium, no date.

Collecting localities for 'Macfarlane, T.D.' from AVH (2023)

Data from 2,891 specimens