Henderson, Rodney John Francis   (1938 - )

Born on 15 January 1938 in Mackay, Queensland;

Primary education: Mackay, Pomona, Proserpine.
Secondary education: Proserpine State High (Junior), Evening tutorial classes (Senior) p/t, Brisbane.
Tertiary education: Universty of Queensland (part time)

Rodney (Rod) Henderson retired from the Queensland Public Service on 29 November 2002 after a career of just over 48 years, of which 41 years have been with the Queensland Herbarium.

After commencing as a clerk with the Department of Public Lands in August 1954 at the age of 16, Rod took up a cadetship with the Department of Agriculture and Stock in February 1957. Three years after this he was appointed Assistant Botanist at the Queensland Herbarium. He started writing research papers in the mid 1960's after an initial phase of "getting to know the ropes" under capable mentors of Stan Blake, Lindsay Smith, Selwyn Everist and Les Pedley.

Rod had wide botanical interests in the groups he studied taxonomically, which ranged from the Solanaceae, Liliaceae (in particular the genus Dianella), Euphorbiaceae and more recently Rubiaceae. Field work took him to many areas of Queensland and later in his career travel grants from ABRS enabled him to collect in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and the SW corner of Western Australia. As a result of field activity there are about three and a half thousand voucher specimens of Rod’s, either as sole collector or as a collector with other botanists.

He was meticulous in the investigation of the groups he studied, and used a number of methods of research based on morphology, cytology, anatomy and palynology. Of particular interest to Rod was the application of the correct botanical nomenclature to the taxa he described and in the process of perfecting the application of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, he became the nomenclatural guru for BRI. Indeed he became so well versed both in his knowledge of botanical Latin and in the interpretation of the Code that his expertise was sought after both nationally and internationally over the years. He has attended the Nomenclature Sessions of 3 International Botanical Congresses and participated with enthusiasm in the debates from which new editions of the Code are based. His interest in nomenclature and its application to the naming of plants took Rod to the Linnean Hierarchy Symposium at the Smithsonian Institution in 2001 and he is planning to attend the 2005 International Botanical Congress in Vienna.

Rod was actively involved with ASBS from the days of its inauguration, being its second vice-president and Newsletter editor from 1975 until 1978. Many of the teething problems of the early days were facilitated through Rod’s participation in the assisting of the smooth running of the Society.

After his stint with ASBS Rod was appointed the ABLO for the 1978-79 term. Although set back financially, he often talks about this period as being one of the highlights of his life, particularly as he was able to take his wife Shonee and seven children with him and enrol the school aged ones in local English schools in Surrey, about 40 km from Kew. En route to the U.K. Rod visited botanical institutions in New Caledonia, Fiji, Hawaii, California, Missouri, Washington, New York and Boston and on the return trip he visited Singapore and Perth. While he was at Kew Rod wrote his own duty statement and recommended that one be written for future ABLOs.

Rod has overseen three core activities at the Queensland Herbarium during his career and it is going to be a challenge to fill his shoes in these areas. They are overseeing the maintenance of the Queensland Herbarium Plant Catalogues, the editorship of the Queensland Census and the technical editor for the Herbarium journal Austrobaileya. The Catalogues have been of great use for BRI staff, where, as well as being a definitive listing of all plant taxa recognised at BRI, it is the main source of information about revisional work on Australian plant families. Although the Queensland Census has essentially been a spin-off from the HERBRECS database, it nevertheless required a considerable skill in pruning out extraneous matter before publication and Rod exhibited the skill and patience to guide this process to publication on three occasions in 1994, 1997 and 2002. Finally it was the quality control of the technical editing of nomenclatural issues for Austrobaileya that Rod came into his own, and one knew that if a manuscript had passed through the "Henderson" bottleneck there was a good chance it was in much better shape than it was before.

An attribute that Rod is well known for is his friendliness and approachability in all matters, botanical and general. Although he has endured a number of hardships in his life, the way he has overcome them has been a witness and inspiration to me and no doubt many others. Although Rod has now retired officially, he has already joined the league of the research associates at BRI, and plans to finish off some of his research projects on the days he is not occupied with his other main interests in life, square dancing and involvement with his grandchildren.

Source: Bryan Simon, Queensland Herbarium, ASBS Newsletter No.113 December 2002
ABRS survey of contributors, mid-1980s.
Portrait Photo: 1986, supplied to ABRS contributors survey by Henderson.

Collecting localities for 'Henderson, R.J.F.' from AVH (2021)

Data from 348 specimens