521 
L.A.S. Johnson; taxonomist, ecologist, 
conservationist ... botanist sens, lat 
Doug Benson 
Abstract 
Benson, D.H. (National Herbarium of New South Wales, Royal Botanic Gardens, Mrs Macquaries 
Road, Sydney, NSW, Australia 2000) 1996. L.A.S. Johnson: taxonomist, ecologist, conservationist ... 
botanist sens. lat. Telopea 6(4): 521-526. A brief account of the contribution of L.A.S. Johnson 
to the fields of ecology and conservation, during his research career and as Director of the 
Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, is given. 
Introduction 
As Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, and throughout his research career. 
Dr L.A.S. Johnson has had wide botanical interests, and his particular concern for 
the environment and its conservation has been evident to those who have worked 
with him. His contribution to taxonomy may be immense, but his broader views of 
plants and their ecological context, plants in the landscape, the uniqueness and 
importance of the Australian landscape, and of conservation issues broadly, have 
been woven into his writing, and are evident in his public and scientific life. 
With his appointment as a taxonomist (Assistant Botanist) at the Royal Botanic Gardens 
in 1948 Johnson began a long and productive scientific career that was to concentrate 
on systematic botany; this has always dominated his scientific output. However during 
his final years at Sydney University he had been influenced by the ecologist Noel 
Beadle (then lecturer and interested in the role of soil nutrients in determining vegetation 
patterns), and developed an interest in geomorphology, ecology and landscape. 
Plants and their ecological context 
Although his taxonomic interests are many, the eucalypts have been a major component 
of Johnson's work. Eucalypts form the dominant cover for much of the Australian 
landscape, particularly in New South Wales, and an understanding of their distribution 
requires more than an assessment of herbarium specimens — it requires a feel for, and 
knowledge of, the landscape and the local habitats within it. In A Classification of the 
Eucalypts, Pryor & Johnson (1971) draw upon 'information from the associated 
disciplines of genetics, ecology, and anatomy as well as amplifying the study of 
morphology along traditional lines' (pi). The variation patterns characteristic of different 
kinds of species or complexes subsequently described are strongly related to geographic 
distribution and broad landscape characteristics. In assessing the distinctiveness of the 
subgenera Johnson (pers. comm.) argues that there are basic ecological differences 
between them and that the predominance of a particular subgenus relates to differences 
in the nutrient content of the soils — Symplnjomyrtus species are most widespread on 
fertile soils while Monocalyptus are more common on the least fertile soils [the 
importance of soil fertility is a recurring and unifying theme throughout his work]. 
This is evidently the case for vegetation on the western Blue Mountains (Benson & 
Keith 1990) — [the broader picture was pointed out daily to the author during a cross¬ 
continental fieldtrip with LASJ in 1984]. 
