Mitchell, Andrew Arthur (1949–)

Born in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, England in 1949.

He completed a Bachelor of Science (Honours), Agricultural Botany, in Reading, UK in 1972, before coming to Australia in November of that year.

He was employed by the Western Australian Department of Agriculture, commencing on 1 April 1973 and working for 25 years in various roles that included undertaking rangeland surveys over vast areas of Western Australia (11 years) and as a Rangeland Advisor at Meekatharra and Karratha for 12 years. During this period, Andrew co-authored the first and second editions of “Arid Shrubland Plants of Western Australia”.

He was then employed for 13 years as a senior botanist in Darwin, Northern Territory, for the North Australian Quarantine Strategy.

Andrew then worked as an environmental consultant undertaking the mapping of plant communities and the identification of species, especially flora of conservation interest at mining and exploration sites.

He has also authored booklets, assessed rangeland monitoring sites for pastoralists, and run workshops on plant identification including two weed management training courses in Botswana, Africa, on behalf of the Western Australian Department of Agriculture.

Andrew collected the type material of numerous Western Australian plant species and subspecies. He is honoured in the names of Tephrosia andrewii Cowie, Ptilotus mitchellii Benl, Heliotropium mitchellii Craven, and Dicrastylis mitchellii Rye.

Sources:
Profile at https://www.newlandenviro.com.au/team-view/andrew-mitchell
Australian Plant Name Index records, https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/search/names [accessed 18 December 2023]
A.A.Mitchell, pers. comm via email (July 2023).
Portrait Photo: M.Fagg, 2007.

Collecting localities for 'Mitchell, A.A.' from AVH (2022)

Data from 16,795 specimens
this is probably not complete, as this collector could have been entered as 'Mitchell, A.' in some instances, which can be confused with 'Mitchell A.C.' and 'Mitchell, A.S.'.