Michael Proctor 1929-2017

We've just received the very sad news that Michael Proctor has died.

Michael was regarded as one Britain's most eminent botanists/ ecologists and co-authored many notable titles, including three books in the renowned 'New Naturalist' series. 

He was a contributing author to all five volumes of British Plant Communities by Rodwell et al. and he also taught botany and ecology at the University of Exeter for almost 40 years.

Michael joined BSBI in 1950 and was editor of Watsonia from 1961 to 1971. 

Proctor & Bradshaw's SEM of Carex flacca leaves

He published more than 100 research papers during his long career and BSBI members will remember his and Margaret Bradshaw's series of scanning electron micrographs of the leaves of British Carex species which were published in New Journal of Botany during 2014 and 2015. 

A full obituary will be published in the BSBI Yearbook and on our Obituaries page. For now, we'd like to send our condolences to Michael's family and remember his many contributions to British botany and ecology.