Seppelt, Rodney David (Rod)   (1945 - )

Born in Tanunda, South Australia, 10 December 1945;

Rod was educated at St. Peter's College, Adelaide, and then The University of Adelaide (BSc Hons - 1972, MSc - revision of the hepatic genus Riccia in South Australia - awarded 1974) and The University of Melbourne (PhD study on a revision of the moss flora of subantarctic Macquarie Island and the genera Ditrichum, Distichium and Pseudodistichium in Australasia - awarded 1978).

Intended as the basis of a revision of the genus Viola in Australia, extensive collections in South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania resulted in a revision of the genus for the Flora of South Australia before abandoning the project as a PhD study. The collections are housed primarily in MELU and HO.

Interest in lichens arose from assisting a doctoral student at The University of Adelaide (Rod Rogers) with field work in arid regions of South Australia. Interest in bryophytes arose from undergraduate courses in comparative morphology of non-flowering plants at The University of Adelaide. A deep interest in comparative morphology arose from the emphasis placed on anatomy in undergraduate courses.

An interest in botanical art stemmed from a natural artistic bent and art instruction at school, as well as the requirement for accurate illustrative representation in undergraduate courses in Botany and Zoology and the presence in the Botany Department at The University of Adelaide of a full-time artist (Veda Cruickshank) attached to the Marine Algal research group.

After transferring from Adelaide to Melbourne, an association with George Scott and Celia Rosser, at Monash University, and Ilma Stone, at The University of Melbourne, further fostered a drift towards botanical art as being an integral part of systematics research as well as being aesthetically rewarding.

A teacher at the school in Adelaide spent a year as a weather observer at Mawson Station in Antarctica and on returning presented an illustrated talk on his year away, sparking Rod's long-standing interest in the Antarctic and Arctic regions. Involvement in Antarctic and subantarctic botanical research commenced in 1971 with a summer visit to Mawson Station and Macquarie Island.

A further visit to Macquarie Island in 1975, Davis Station and the Vestfold Hills in 1978, Casey Station also in 1978, heralded a long association with Antarctic and subantaretic research activities that included a Visiting Professorship term at the National Institute of Polar Research, Tokyo, in 1985, and nine summer seasons with Antarctica New Zealand and the University of Waikato Antarctic Research Program.

Altogether, some 42 visits were made to the subantarctic and Antarctic region and nine summer field seasons in the Arctic (Alaska, Sweden and Norway).

The Antarctic plant collections formerly housed in the Australian Antarctic Division Herbarium (ADT), (now transferred to HO), represent the greatest geographic spread of any Antarctic botanical collection, following personal visits to almost half of the Antarctic continent.

Prior to taking up the appointment of ABLO at Kew, Rod and his wife spent three months in the United States of America at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The Seppelts arrived at Kew on 18 September 2000, missing an overlap with the previous ABLO, Bob Chinnock. Rod finished his ABLO term on 31 August, 2001.

On returning to Australia he resumed employment at the Australian Antarctic Division and continued there until retirement in December 2012.

Most of the information on original publications of moss names (full publication reference details, publication dates, page numbers) were saved to disc. Photocopies of many of the publications were obtained and stored as hard copy. This information has been transferred to the Tasmanian Herbarium (HO), along with the extensive personal herbarium (formerly registered as ADT) accumulated by Rod Seppelt since 1971.

Apart from curatorial responsibility for the collection (lichens, bryophytes, algae, vascular plants), Rod has continued his botanical art projects, illustrating the family Pottiaceae for the Moss Flora of New Zealand, various illustrated projects on the mosses of Tasmania, a fully illustrated revision of the genus Fissidens and a large number of drawings for the Moss Flora of Australia.

He is currently [2023] an Honorary Botanist at the Tasmanian Herbarium and for three years edited the Journal Kanunnah of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, until it ceased publication with Volume 7.

Since relocating to Queensland in 2016, Rod has continued illustrating mosses and revisionary studies (families Bruchiaceae, Calymperaceae, Fisidentaceae). By 2013 some 80% of the Tasmanian mosses (4 of 6 fascicles published) and 80% of the Queensland mosses had been illustrated.

Source: Extracted from:
George, Alex (Ed), The Australian Botanical Liaison Officer scheme at Kew, 1937-2009, Four Gables Press, Perth, 2023.
Portrait Photo: 2013, Jacquie Ward, Tas Museum & Art Gallery (from above book).

Collecting localities for 'Seppelt, R.D.' from AVH (2023)

Data from 6,428 specimens