Amazing Women in the World of Plants

Celebrate International Women’s Day on 8 March by joining a free guided walk.

Learn about some of the pioneering female researchers, scientists, artists and writers who contributed to the study of plants. See some of the plants that they collected, wrote about or painted.

The picture shows Ellis Rowan, an Australian painter famous (even in her own time) for her botanical works, and an accomplished author, naturalist, and explorer. The Ellis Rowan building at the Gardens was named in her honour.

Georgiana Molloy (left, below) was a plant collector who collected and documented plant specimens and seeds from south west Western Australia in the very early days of the Swan River colony.

Fran Bodkin (right, below) is a botanist and D’harawal elder. She has compiled and illustrated Encyclopaedia Botanica: The Essential Reference Guide to Native and Exotic Plants in Australia and in the 1970s helped establish the Australian Botanic Gardens at Mount Annan which was a former meeting site of Indigenous people.

Find out more about these, and more than a dozen more amazing women in the world of plants!

The walks will take place between 6 – 12 March at 11am – 12pm and 2pm – 3pm

No bookings are required for individuals, but groups of more than six people should contact walks@friendsanbg.org.au a week before the planned walk. Meet at the clock near the bridge.