Turner, Perpetua Anne Mary (née Blanks)   (fl. 1990s - 2020s)

Born Perpetua Blanks, in Melbourne, Australia, but from the age of 5 to her late teens, grew up in Bendigo.

After finishing college, she moved back to Melbourne, graduating from The University of Melbourne School of Botany in 1996 with a BSc.Hons in Ecology.

Her Honours project investigated how well vegetation communities based on vascular plants could be used as surrogates for the bryological flora. Under the guidance of the late Dr George Scott, and supported by bryologists Lucille Turner and Dr David Meagher, she was absorbed into the fascinating miniature world of bryology.

After a first-class Hons degree, she successfully gained a position as Scientific Officer with the Victorian Government. Over the next three years she travelled the state, mapping vegetation communities from the mountains to the sea, seeing how integral bryophytes were to early succession, stabilising the soil and creating nursery sites.

Fascinated by alpine ecology, she decided this was what she wanted to study, and was successful in obtaining a PhD scholarship to the University of Tasmania. And, instead of alpine bryology, her dissertation, supervised by Prof. Jamie Kirkpatrick, centred on the conservation ecology of bryophytes in wet eucalypt forest.

After 19 years with the University of Tasmania, she became Manager, State Fire Management Council, Tasmania Fire Service.


Her herbarium specimens appear to be under 'Blanks, P.', 'Blanks, P.A.M.' or 'Turner, P.A.M' (specimens with just 'Turner, P.' as collector may be other people).

A more detailed biography is available at: https://bryology.org/perpetua-turner/

Source: Extracted from: Bryological Times 155 - Special Edition: Women in Bryology (2022);
www.linkedin.com/in/perpetua-turner-56467b50/
Portrait Photo: www.linkedin.com/in/perpetua-turner-56467b50/

Collecting localities for 'Blanks, P.' from AVH (2023)

Data from 19 specimens, mapping for 'Blanks, P.'.

Collecting localities for 'Turner, P.A.M.' from AVH (2023)

Data from 40 specimens, mapping for 'Turner, P.'.