Australian Dictionary of Biography

Lawrie Johnson, c1990

Courtesy of Australian Botanical Gardens, Sydney

Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson (1925–1997), botanist, was born on 26 June 1925 at Cheltenham, Sydney, third child and only son of New South Wales-born parents Algernon Sidney Johnson, public servant, and his wife Emily Margaret Johnson, née Manson. Bright and academically inclined, Lawrie was educated at Beecroft Public School and Parramatta High School, placing equal first in chemistry in the New South Wales Leaving certificate examination (1941). He was awarded a scholarship to the University of Sydney (BSc Hons, 1948; DSc, 1971), where he intended to study chemistry, but inspired teaching such as by Eric Ashby and (Sir) Rutherford Robertson encouraged him to transfer to botany. In 1944 he received the Collie prize for botany before graduating with first-class honours in 1948.

Johnson’s honours research into the taxonomy of the Casuarinaceae (she-oak) took him to the National Herbarium of New South Wales at the Sydney Botanic Gardens (Royal Botanic Gardens from 1959), where he was later appointed as an assistant botanist (1949). He was soon promoted to botanist (1951–68) and took on curatorial responsibility and research into eucalypts, cycads, Casuarinaceae, Juncaceae, Cyperaceae, and other groups. When he joined the gardens staff, taxonomy was unfashionable and the scientific reputation of the herbarium and gardens had deteriorated, but the arrival of a new generation of botanists heralded a period of renewal.

Through a first-year botany class, Johnson had met Merle Margaret Asta Hodge, who became a stenographer and later worked in airline administration. They married on 18 November 1950 at Waverley Methodist Church—chosen to please in-laws since Johnson himself felt no need for religious belief—and settled at Northbridge in Sydney’s north, where they raised five children: Christopher, Sylvia, Nicholas, Quentin, and Alexander. Johnson, who suffered from anxiety, depended on Merle’s steadfastness and support throughout his career. She tolerated his long hours at the office and helped maintain their wide circle of friends. In 1962, when the New South Wales government refused to fund his family’s travel for a twelve-month posting at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, London, instead suggesting that someone with a smaller family be appointed, Merle insisted that he should take the position while she remained in Sydney with the children.

During the 1960s Johnson served on committees that reviewed parks and reserves in New South Wales, one investigating the conflicts between mining and conservation in areas of mineral sands, and another that found the dieback of coastal plantings of Norfolk Island pines was due to detergent pollution. He was also a member of a committee appraising a Commonwealth project to develop an authoritative record of Australia’s plant biodiversity. This led to an appointment to the Interim Council of the Australian Biological Resources Study (1973–78), which oversaw the establishment of the Flora of Australia project. He was also a member and president (1967–68, 1971–72) of the council of the Linnean Society of New South Wales.

The 1960s witnessed the development of numerical taxonomy, which sought to group organisms by overall similarity based on equally weighted shared, observable characteristics. This differed from classification based on phylogeny that analysed an organism’s biological and evolutionary history. Johnson weighed in on this debate, and in rejecting numerical approaches during his presidential address to the Linnean Society in 1968, he showed his willingness to stand apart from the mainstream. The clash between these methodologies would become obsolete with the development of DNA sequencing in the 1970s. He later considered macromolecular phylogenetics ‘the biggest and most important breakthrough in our subject since Darwin’ (Johnson 1996, 304).

From 1968 Johnson moved into administrative roles at the gardens with his appointment as deputy chief botanist (1968–72) and director (1972–85). He valued biodiversity conservation and strongly promoted the gardens’ scientific role, especially its educational value for the community. His view was that the gardens were not ‘a museum of static objects and display rooms, but a place where people can get out among the living plants’ (Johnson, in Knuckey 1980, 14). In this, he benefited from the goodwill of the State premier Neville Wran, who transferred the gardens from the Department of Agriculture to the Premier’s Department, where it joined museums and other cultural organisations. Johnson also oversaw the opening of the Pyramid glasshouse (1972), establishment of the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust (1980), construction of a new herbarium building (1982), and the start of an education program for school children. Volunteer programs also commenced, the Friends of the Botanic Gardens was formed (1982), and planning was undertaken for the Arc glasshouse (1989) and satellite botanic gardens at Mount Tomah (Blue Mountains) and Mount Annan (near Campbelltown). He championed the Flora of New South Wales series (1990–93), which later developed into the online database PlantNET, and advocated for the employment of women horticulturalists.

As a scientist, Johnson was notable for the breadth of his interests and expertise, the rigour of his scientific approach, and the intensity with which he defended his scientific conclusions. He became particularly known for his expertise on eucalypts and, with Lindsay Pryor, concluded that Eucalyptus consisted of seven groups that they informally termed subgenera. For many years Johnson advocated splitting the eucalypts into eight genera, or possibly eleven. This prospect alarmed amateur enthusiasts, and popular journals published articles championing the status quo. Eventually, with his colleague Ken Hill, he concluded that the major evolutionary lineages would be reasonably represented by recognising one new genus, Corymbia, in addition to Eucalyptus and Angophora. He also played a leading role in discussions of nomenclature.

When Johnson retired in December 1985 the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust appointed him director emeritus and honorary research associate. He remained an energetic researcher and regularly travelled to international congresses. Widely known for his forthrightness, he became increasingly critical of trends in the management of the gardens, and his outspoken comments led to his status as an associate being terminated in 1996. This was restored in 1997, but by then he had been diagnosed with terminal brain tumours. Perhaps it was his candid expression and interest in systematic theory that led the editors of Australian Systematic Botany to name their review series L.A.S. Johnson Reviews. He died on 1 August 1997 at the Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards, and was buried in the Northern Suburbs cemetery.

A man of medium height, with a short goatee beard, Johnson tended to prefer distinctive clothes, notably a Russian fur hat in winter. He had a voracious appetite for knowledge and wide interests ranging from classical music and comparative languages to tennis, travel, mathematics, railways, and wine. Though he could be a stern critic with high standards of logical thought, he was also encouraging to many colleagues, especially young botanists. His scientific achievements earned him the Clarke medal of the Royal Society of New South Wales (1979) and the Mueller medal of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (1984). In 1986 he was elected fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and subsequently appointed AM (1987). His name is commemorated in the plant genus Lasjia (Proteaceae) and in species of Daphnandra, Davidsonia, Eucalyptus, Grevillea, Machaerina, Macrozamia, Melaleuca, Notelaea, and Xanthorrhoea.