Alan Mitchell (botanist)

Alan Mitchell (botanist) Alan F. Mitchell (4 November 1922 – 3 August 1995) was a British forestry forester, dendrology dendrologist, botanist, and author of books on trees. In 1938 he was the co-founder of the Tree Register of the British Isles (T.R.O.B.I.). Quotes … British Botanical specimen plant-collectors have been the pioneers or among the most active workers in every area of the world important for conifer species. In the second half of the seventeenth century Henry Compton (bishop) Bishop Compton at Fulham Palace was inspiring collection in eastern North America by John Tradescant the Younger Tradescant and receiving plants from William Bartram Bartram. From 1827 David Douglas (botanist) David Douglas was sending back the first conifers from western North America, and his collecting was greatly augmented by the Veitchian collectors and those from the Oregon Society from 1853 to 1856. John Gould Veitch J. G. Veitch and Robert Fortune were sending plants from Japan in 1860 and 1861, Fortune having already sent some from southern China in 1843. William Lobb and William Archer (naturalist) William Archer had followed Archibald Menzies Menzies’s pioneer introduction {Araucaria araucana) from South America by many more species in 1847 and 1854. From 1899, Ernest Henry Wilson Wilson and George Forrest (botanist) Forrest were sending a multitude of species from China and later, Formosa. In India, amateur collectors acquired Himalayan species from 1818 onwards. Conifers in the British Isles: A Descriptive Handbook Forestry Commission Booklet No. 33 1972 London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office https://cdn.forestresearch.gov.uk/1972/03/fcbk033.pdf 1 (with drawings by Christine Darter) A Field Guide to the Trees of Britain and Northern Europe (1974) WHITE WILLOW    Salix alba L.Native all over Britain except in N. W. Scotland, Europe, N. Africa to C. Asia. Common along lowland riversides and valleys; usually less numerous than Salix × fragilis Salix fragilis S. fragilis. A Field Guide to the Trees of Britain and Northern Europe Houghton Mifflin 1974 9780395191149 https://books.google.com/books?id=igBHAAAAYAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=fragilis 189 (415 pages) SHINGLE OAK    Quercus imbricaria André Michaux Michx.South-eastern USA 1786. Infrequent; a few large gardens and collections in all parts. p. 229 Quotes about Alan Mitchell In 1994 The Sacred Yew'' by Anand Chetan and Diana Brueton ... revealed that Alan Mitchell (1992 - 1995 and founder of the Tree Register of Britain and Ireland), after becoming increasingly interested in potential Taxus baccata yew antiquity himself, (via corresponding with Allen Meredith in the late 1980’s), considered it entirely possible that wild, stunted yew on the storm swept and barren Ardnamurchan Ardnamurchan peninsula (the westernmost point of the Geography of Scotland Scottish mainland) could be truly ancient. This was despite their size; with relatively small girths of around 12ft (3.5 m approx.). By 1994 Alan Mitchell had concluded that “There is no theoretical end to this tree, no need for it to die” ... Paul Greenwood, Ancient Yew in Upland and Cliff Habitata in the UK - New Research Ancient Yew Group June 2007 3 https://www.ancient-yew.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Ancient-Yews-in-upland-and-cliff-habitats-1.pdf Alan Mitchell (1922-1995) became famous in the world of Dendrology tree study, especially in his native England, as the preeminent tree measurer. He wrote some 9 or 10 tree books, covering identification, history in cultivation, utility to people, and growth. His last, posthumous title cites the abundance, performance, strengths and weaknesses of 163 kinds of trees cultivated in Britain. Arthur Lee Jacobson, Alan Mitchell's Trees of Britain, a book review Washington Park Arboretum Bulletin 59 2 1997 https://arthurleej.com/articles/a-AlanMitchell.html External links Tree-register.org: Obituary. Alan Mitchell Category:1922 births Category:1995 deaths Category:Botanists from England Category:Non-fiction authors from England Category:Science authors