Gordon Douglas Rowley
Gordon Douglas Rowley (31 July 1921 – 11 August 2019) was a British botanist and writer specialising in cacti and succulents.
Also recorded as G.D.Rowley · Gordon Rowley · Gordon D. Rowley
Gordon Douglas Rowley
- Name
- Gordon Douglas Rowley
- Born
- 31 July 1921
- Birthplace
- London
- Died
- 11 August 2019
- Place of death
- Reading
- Known for
- Cacti and Succulents
- Awards
- Veitch Memorial Medal
- Nationality
- United Kingdom
- Occupation
- botanist · writer · botanical collector
- Fields
- botany
- Education
- University of London · The John Lyon School
- Honours
- Cactus d’Or · Veitch Memorial Medal
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Gordon Douglas Rowley (31 July 1921 – 11 August 2019) was a British botanist and writer specialising in cacti and succulents.
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Note VALÉORINE
Gordon Douglas Rowley (1921–2019) was a British botanical collector, botanist and writer. Born in London, the botanical collector died in Reading.
Gordon Douglas Rowley studied at The John Lyon School and University of London. The botanical collector was active in botany.
Languages used include English. Gordon Douglas Rowley received Cactus d’Or and Veitch Memorial Medal.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 01 October 2026
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Born In · outgoing
London
Place
Pencil sketch by George Henry Harlow, 1814, http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/largerimage.php?mkey=mw05495
Died In · outgoing
Reading
Place
Citizen Of · outgoing
United Kingdom
Place
Educated At · outgoing
University of London
Organisation
Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Jóna Þórunn .
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q1416264 · wikipedia · Gordon Rowley
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Gordon Douglas Rowley • Born — 31 July 1921 • Birthplace — London • Died — 11 August 2019 • Place of death — Reading • Workplaces — John Innes Horticultural Institution; University of Reading • Known for — Cacti and Succulents • Awards — Veitch Memorial Medal • Author Abbrev Bot — G.D.Rowley
Personal life
Personal life
Rowley was born on 31 July 1921 in London, UK to Cecil and Florence Gladys (née Goldsworthy) Rowley. He went to The Lower School of John Lyon, Harrow-on-the Hill. In 1942 he graduated with a B.Sc. degree in botany from King's College, University of London. He died on 11 August 2019.
Career
Career
From 1948 to 1961 Rowley was employed at the John Innes Horticultural Institution while it was based at Merton Park to curate the National Rose Species Collection and subsequently all the plant collections. From 1961 to 1981 he was lecturer in Horticultural Botany at the University of Reading. Cacti and succulents had been one of Rowley's interests since the mid-1940s but they became the focus of his life. He travelled extensively to see and collect cacti and succulents in Africa and southern America. He developed his own collection of these plants as well as antiquarian books about this group. He was a founder member of the International Organisation for Succulent Plant Research, and from 1952 to 1982 edited the society's Repertorium Plantarum Succulentarum, a list of new succulent plant names published each year. Rowley was the inaugural President of the British Cactus and Succulent Society in 1983 and continued in this role until 2004. He was also the editor of the society's journal Bradleya from 1993 to 2000.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
London.
Birth place
Reading.
Death place
Publications
Rowley was author or co-author of over 300 publications including 20 books as well as both popular and scientific articles. These included: • Rowley, Gordon (1959) Flowering Succulents. Farnham, Surry. • Rowley, Gordon (1968) Cissus and Cyphostemma: A short review of succulent Vitaceae, with check-list of names of species. • Rowley, Gordon (1974 - 1976) (editor) Pierre J. Redoute's Les Roses. Facsimile edition. Four volumes. • Rowley, Gordon (1978) Illustrated Encyclopedia of Succulents. A Guide to the Natural History of Cacti and Cactus-like Plants. Salamander Publications, New York. Also Dutch, French, German, Italian and American editions. • Rowley, Gordon (1978) Reunion of the Genus Echinopsis. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Succulents. New York: Crown Publishing.. • Rowley, Gordon (1980) Name that Succulent. Stanley Thornes Ltd, Cheltenham. • Rowley, Gordon (1983) Intergeneric hybrids in succulents. • Rowley, Gordon (1983) Adenium and Pachypodium Handbook. British Cactus and Succulence Society, Oxford. • Rowley, Gordon and John Thomas Bates (1985) The Haworthia Drawings of John Thomas Bates. Succulent Plant Trust, Buckhurst Hill. • Rowley, Gordon (1987) Caudiciform and Pachycaul succulents: Pachycauls, Bottle-,Barrel-And Elephant-Trees and Their Kin a Collector's Miscellany. Strawberry Press, Mill Valley, California, USA. • Rowley, Gordon (1992) Succulent Compositae: Senecio & Othonna. Strawberry Press, Mill Valley, California, USA. • Rowley, Gordon (1992) Didiereaceae, Cacti of the Old World. Oxford. • Rowley, Gordon (1995) Anacampseros, Avonia, Grahamia. Oxford. • Rowley, Gordon (1997) A History of Succulent Plants. Strawberry Press, Mill Valley, California, USA. • Rowley, Gordon (1999) Pachypodium and Adenium. Southampton. • Rowley, Gordon (2003) Crassula, A Grower's Guide. Cactus and Co libre, Venegono, Italy. Also Russian and Italian editions. • Rowley, Gordon (2006) Teratopia: The World of Cristate and Variegated Succulents. Cactus and Co libre, Tradante, Italy. Also Italian edition. • Rowley, Gordon (2017) Succulents in cultivation - breeding new cultivars. British Cactus and Succulence Society, Hornchurch, Essex.
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Gordon Rowley”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q1416264: Gordon Douglas Rowley
General reference · Wikidata
Awards and honours
• Illustration — string-of-pearls (Curio rowleyanus) Rowley was awarded Life membership of the National Cactus and Succulent Society in 1981 after becoming a Fellow in 1956. From 1966 to 1976 Rowley was President of the African Succulent Plant Society. In 1979 Rowley was awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal by the Royal Horticultural Society for his work with cacti and succulents. He was awarded the Allan Dyer Prize by the Succulent Society of South Africa in 2001, and the Myron Kimnach Lifetime Achievement Award by the Cactus and Succulent Society of America in 2013. Plants named after him include: • Curio rowleyanus (syn. Senecio rowleyanus H.Jacobsen 1968), also called the string-of-pearls or string-of-beads. • Lobivia rowleyi I.Itô 1957 • Pygmaeocereus rowleyanus Backeb. 1962 • Echinopsis rowleyi H.Friedrich 1974 G.D.Rowley
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Walker, Colin. The life and times of Gordon Rowley (1921-2019). CactusWorld. 37. 4. 257–262. 2019.
- 2.Mitich, Larry W. President's Comments: Gordon Rowley - wunderkind of the succulent world. To the Point - Newsletter of CSSA. 72. 1. 3–4. 2000.
- 3.Obituary - Gordon Rowley. The Garden. November. 8. 2019.
References
Citations
References
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reference work
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General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 18 August 2026.
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