Mallinson, David James (Dave)   (1951–2022)

Born in Sydney, NSW, on 15 December 1951; died in Canberra, ACT, on 15 July 2022.

Dave Mallinson worked as a horticulturist at the Australian National Botanic Gardens (ANBG), Canberra, from 1985 to 2001. From his duties there, and recreational activities, he developed an exceptional ability in plant identification.

He transferred to the Australian National Herbarium (ANH) in 2001 where he undertook specimen curation for the (Australasian Virtual Herbarium) (AVH) and acted as a curator for many plant families/orders, including Asteraceae and Scrophulariales.

From about 2006, he assumed responsibility for identification of specimens submitted by the public via the ANBG Plant Enquiry Service (the 'Public IDs').

Dave assisted with several versions of the online Census of the Flora of the Australian Capital Territory, was a major contributing author to the much-utilised book Grassland Flora: A field guide for the Southern Tablelands (NSW & ACT) (1998) and later worked on a corresponding woodland flora volume.

He retired from ANH on 17 December 2014, and his botanical expertise, practical field-work skills and sense of humour were greatly missed.

Dave's health deteriorated in the last couple of years of his life and he died in care on 15 July 2022 at age 70. He is buried in the Gundaroo Cemetery, NSW, not far from the house he lived in for much of his later life.

Sources: Maggie Nightingale & Murray Fagg, pers. comm.
Australasian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter 162-163: 41 (March–June 2015)
Portrait: Extracted from photo by M.Fagg, 2011, now in ANBG Image Collections.

Collecting localities for 'Mallinson, D.' from AVH (2021)

Data from 1,957 specimens