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Botanical illustrators play a key role in deepening our understanding of plant science through visual communication. From morphology to biological processes, illustrations clarify written and verbal information. All visual learning tools, including illustrations, improve long-term retention of information and help learners process information more quickly.
Illustrations were especially important before photography was widely used. Even after the invention of the camera, botanical illustration still holds educational value in ways that photographs can't provide. Cytological, developmental, and other biological processes that can't be effectively captured by cameras are realized through drawings and paintings. Paleobotanical artists interpret scientific findings to give viewers a chance to see what ancient plants and their environments would have looked like. Depth and form can be brought out clearly through careful and precise rendering, whereas photographs tend to flatten subjects, especially those with highly textured or reflective surfaces. Botanical illustrators also make artistic decisions to create more appealing images that can have a strong impact on viewers and increase interest in the subjects they portray.
A number of research botanists and collectors are also accomplished illustrators and use their illustrations to communicate their findings. Other botanical artists do not conduct research or collect specimens and focus solely on illustration.
Historically, botanical illustrators have been primarily women. In a time when women were not permitted or at least highly discouraged from entering the sciences, illustration provided a way to enter these fields in a way that was socially acceptable and did not require formal scientific training. Because botany was generally regarded as a more "feminine" science, many women scientific artists gravitated towards this field. Unfortunately, many of these artists went uncredited and are lost to history.[jr899] |
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1926 - 2007 
Jacqueline Adams Jacqueline Nancy Mary Adams was a New Zealand botanist and botanical illustrator recognized for her numerous contributions to publications on native plants of New Zealand. |
1913 - 1984 
Ruth Allen Ruth Allen was an amateur American mycologist, nature photographer and conservationist in the area of New Jersey and Philadelphia, USA |
1904 - 1975 
Caroline Allen Caroline Allen was an American plant taxonomist and botanical illustrator, and an expert on the angiosperm family Lauraceae. |
1878 - 1969 
Blanche Ames Blanche Ames was an American botanical illustrator, who provided illustrations for the Orchidaceae studies of Oakes Ames. She was also an activist and inventor. |
1794 - 1830 
Henry Andrews Henry Cranke Andrews was a British botanical illustrator and plant taxonomist and his work heaths is particularly well known. |
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1801 - 1876 
James Andrews James Andrews was an English botanical painter and draughtsman best known for his flower paintings. His illustrations are featured in nature writer Sarah Bowdich Lee's book Trees, Plants, and Flowers: Their Beauties, Uses, and Influences (1854). |
1914 - 2007 
Eily Archibald Eily Archibald was a South African botanist who named several plant species of the veld grassland, and was the author and illustrator of The Eastern Cape Veld Flowers, a valuable resource for that flora. |
1867 - 1944 
Margaret Armstrong Margaret Armstrong was a prominent American designer and illustrator who worked in the botanical field, and published field guides to plants of the American west. |
1873 - 1955 
Mary Arnold Mary Daisy Arnold was a botanical illustrator who worked for the United States Department of Agriculture and is one of the top three contributors to the USDA's Pomological Watercolor Collection. |
1651 - 1742 
Claude Aubriet Claude Aubriet was a botanical illustrator known for his appointment as the royal botanical painter at the Jardin du Roi (now Jardin des Plantes) from 1707 until 1735. |
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1701 - 1780 
Madeleine Basseporte Madeleine Francoise Basseporte was a French botanical painter best known for serving as the Royal Painter for the King's Garden and Cabinet under Louis XV. She was the first woman to be appointed to the position. |
1760 - 1826 
Ferdinand Bauer Ferdinand Bauer, brother of artist Franz Bauer, was an Austrian botanical illustrator best known for accompanying English navigator Matthew Flinders' circumnavigation of Australia as a botanical and zoological draughtsman. |
1758 - 1840 
Franz Bauer Franz Bauer, brother of artist Ferdinand Bauer, was an Austrian botanical illustrator and microscopist who settled in Kew as its first employed botanical illustrator. He taught illustration to a number of important figures such as Queen Charlotte, Princess Elizabeth, and William Hooker. |
1892 - 1974 
Alma Beers Alma Beers was the first woman botanist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. |
1787 - 1879 
Jacob Bigelow Jacob Bigelow was an American physician, technologist, plant collector and plant taxonmist who studied medical botany and ethnobotany as well. |
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1707 - 1758 
Elizabeth Blackwell Elizabeth Blackwell was an illustrator whose best known work, A Curious Herbal, was created on a whim out of financial desperation. |
1834 - 1911 
Harry Bolus Harry Bolus was an English-born South African botanical artist and businessman who established a number of bursaries along with the Bolus Herbarium in what is now the University of Cape Town. |
1890 - 1973 
Nina Bracelin Nina Floy "Bracie" Bracelin was an American botanist and botanical illustrator, and associate of Ynes Mexia and Alice Eastwood in California. |
1870 - 1948 
Alberto Brenes Alberto M. Brenes was a Costa Rican orchidologist, plant collector, and botanical illustrator who served as head of botany, Museo Nacional de Costa Rica. |
1849 - 1934 
Nicholas Brown N.E. Brown was an English plant taxonomist, illustrator, and specialist on succulents and South African plants, employed at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. |
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1847 - 1905 
Frederick Burbidge Frederick William Burbridge was an English explorer, plant collector, and illustrator who became Curator of the Botanic Gardens, Trinity College, Glasnevin, Ireland. |
1799 - 1872 
Priscilla Bury Priscilla Susan Bury was an English self taught botanical artist whose lauded folio, A Selection of Hexandrian Plants, was engraved by Robert Havell, who also created the plates for Audubon's Birds of America. |
1874 - 1971 
Edith Clements Edith S. Clements was an American botanist, plant ecologist and illustrator and the first woman to graduate with a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska. She was the spouse of plant ecologist Frederic Clements. |
1869 - 1952 
Ida M. Clute Ida Clute was an American artist who illustrated several botanical texts written by her spouse, Williard N. Clute, including The Fern Allies of North America North of Mexico (1902). |
1893 - 1973 
Isabel Cookson Isabel Cookson was an Australian paleobotanist and palynologist who studied coal deposits and fossilized plant remains of the Victoria region. |
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1810 - 1850 
Barbara Cotton Barbara Cotton, active 1810-1830, was a British botanical painter who contributed illustrations to the multivolume Transactions of the Royal Horticultural Society. |
1890 - 1975 
Helen Craig Helen Hill Craig, spouse of Cornell University mathematics professor Clyde F. Craig, was an American botanist and artist centered in Ithaca, New York. |
1452 - 1519 
Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo da Vinci is an iconic, prolific and well-known Italian scientist, artist and writer of the late 15th Century and early 16th Century. Although best known for his many other interests and accomplishments, da Vinci also had an interest in botany, both from the perspective of art and science. In addition to his exquisite illustrations of plants, da Vinci has been credited with setting out rules for phyllotaxy, the aging of trees by growth rings, and the nature of secondary growth in woody plants by addition of new wood beneath the bark. |
1863 - 1953 
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Alice Davy Alice Bolton Davy was an American botanical illustrator and spouse of English botanist Joseph Burtt Davy, who immigrated to South Africa and later to England. Her illustrations appeared in many Burtt Davy articles in Transvaal Agricultural Journal as well as Manual of the Flowering Plants and Ferns of the Transvaal with Swaziland, South Africa. |
1700 - 1788 
Mary Delany Mary Delany was an 18th century English widow of high social standing who created detailed and highly accurate botanical works with paper-mosaicks and embroidery. |
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1905 - 1997 
Lauramay Dempster Lauramay Tinsley Dempster was an American botanist who worked closely with Willis Jepson on the flora of California. She later became a Herbarium Botanist (and later Research Geneticist and Research Associate) at University of California, Berkeley. She was an expert on the genus Galium (Rubiaceae). |
1803 - 1857 
Sarah Drake Sarah Anne Drake was a English botanical illustrator who worked alongside John Lindley and other prominent botanists. She is especially known for her orchid illustrations and her collaboration with Augusta Innes Withers on Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala by James Bateman. |
1931 - 2021 
Peggy-Ann Duke Peggy-Ann Kessler Duke was an American botanist and freelance botanical illustrator, and spouse of ethnobotanist James Duke. |
1854 - 1945 
Harriet Dyer Harriet Anne Thiselton-Dyer was a British botanical illustrator who contributed to Curtis's Botanical Magazine. She was the daughter of botanists Joseph Dalton Hooker and Frances Harriet Hooker. |
1873 - 1961 
Mary Eaton Mary Emily Eaton was an English botanical illustrator who worked at the New York Botanical Garden and created the illustrations for Britton and Rose's The Cactaceae. |
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1708 - 1770 
Georg Ehret Georg Dionysius Ehret was a German botanical illustrator who worked closely with Carl Linnaeus and developed the Linnaean style of illustration, making him perhaps the most influential botanical artist of all time. |
1846 - 1918 
Charles Faxon Charles Edward Faxon was an American botanical artist and staff member of the Arnold Arboretum, working closely with and illustrating for its first director, Charles Sprague Sargent. |
1865 - 1950 
Adriano Fiori Adriano Fiori was an Italian medic and botanist who collected widely throughout Italy and in Eritrea, on the faculty of the Forestry Institute of Vallombrosa and later at the University of Florence. He edited several editions of Flora Italiana. |
1817 - 1892 
Walter Fitch Walter Hood Fitch was a Scottish botanical illustrator specializing in chromolithography, whose most noteworthy works include hundreds of plates in Curtis's Botanical Magazine. He also illustrated for William Hooker, Joseph Dalton Hooker, George Bentham, James Bateman, and Henry John Elwes in their various published works. |
1861 - 1953 
Margaret Flockton Margaret Flockton was an English-born Australian botanical artist known for being the first botanical illustrator employed by the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney and for her contributions to several publications by director of the gardens Joseph Henry Maiden. |
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1844 - 1929 
Margaret Forrest Lady Margaret Elvire Forrest was a French-born Australian amateur botanist and botanical illustrator, whose art exhibit in 1890 was the first in Australia. |
1888 - 1978 
Mulford B. Foster Mumford B. Foster was an American horticulturist, artist, landscape architect, and plant collector who discovered and brought into cultivation many species of bromeliads. |
1834 - 1931 
Catherine Furbish Catherine "Kate" Furbish was a botanical illustrator from Brunswick, Maine who dedicated her life to collecting, classifying, and painting Maine's flora. |
1886 - 1972 
Helen M. Gilkey Helen Gilkey was an American botanical illustrator and mycologist who specialized in the Tuberales, the truffles. |
1935 - 2015 
Rae Goodall Rae Natalie Prosser de Goodall was an American botanist and illustrator best known for her work on the flora of Tierra del Fuego and for her work with marine mammals. |
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1912 - 2012 
Mary Grierson Mary Anderson Grierson was a Welsh-born Scottish botanical illustrator, on the staff at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. |
1840 - 1912 
William Guilfoyle William Guilfoyle was an English landscape architect, botanist, and botanical illustrator who worked primarily in Australia. |
1730 - 1799 
Johann Hedwig Johann Hedwig was a Romanian-born German medical doctor and bryologist, the "Father of Bryology," who published Fundamentum Historiae Naturalis Muscorum Frondosorum in 1782. |
1668 - 1721 
Johanna Herolt Johanna Helena Herolt was German-born botanical artist and eldest daughter of Maria Sibylla Merian. |
1796 - 1863 
Orra Hitchcock Orra White Hitchcock was an American botanical illustrator, one of the first female scientific and botanical illustrators in the United States. |
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1779 - 1832 
William Hooker William Hooker, not to be confused with William Jackson Hooker, was a botanical illustrator and official artist for the Royal Horticultural Society. The color Hooker's green is named after him. |
1785 - 1865 
William Hooker William Jackson Hooker, not to be confused with botanical illustrator William Hooker, was an English plant collector, botanical illustrator, and the first director of the newly-public Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, where he founded its herbarium and expanded its plantings. |
1785 - 1815
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Ellen Hutchins Ellen Hutchins was an Irish plant collector and botanical illustrator. She is considered to be Ireland's first female botanist. Ellen died at the age of 29 due to chronic illness probably exacerbated by treatments with mercury |
1925 - 2005 
Bente King Bente Starcke King was a Danish American botanical illustrator and staff member of the Bailey Hortorium at Cornell University. |
1864 - 1937 
Charlotte King Charlotte Maria King was an American botanist, mycologist, plant pathologist, and botanical illustrator, serving as Assistant Botanist for the Iowa State College Agricultural Experiment Station and Seed Analyst at Iowa State College. |
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1870 - 1954 
Elsie Kittredge Elsie May Kittredge was an American amateur botanist and illustrator who became an expert on the Vermont flora. |
1896 - 1978 
Lois Lampe Lois Lampe was an American plant anatomist, educator, and scientific illustrator, as well as a proponent of early efforts at phylogenetic taxonomy. |
1753 - 1790 
Ann Lee Ann Lee was a British botanical artist whose work is held at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. She was the daughter of nurseryman James Lee and pupil of Sydney Parkinson. |
1836 - 1923 
Sara Lemmon Sara Plummer Lemmon was an American botanist for whom Mount Lemmon, Arizona, is named, and through her efforts the golden poppy Eschscholzia californica became the California state flower. |
1799 - 1865 
John Lindley John Lindley was an English botanist, horticulturist and illustrator who, without a college education, succeeded under the tutelage of William Jackson Hooker. Lindley eventually joined the faculty of University College, London, and was involved with the Horticultural Society of London (later called the Royal Horticultural Society). He was an expert on orchids especially, and developed the Lindley System of plant classification (a "natural" system based on that of Jussieu). |
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1873 - 1949 
Alice Lounsberry Alice Lounsberry was an American botanist who collaborated with the Australian artist Ellis Rowan to produce several popular North American flora guidebooks. |
1908 - 1998
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Amelia Lundell Amelia Anderson Lundell was botanical illustrator and plant collector, who often co-collected with her spouse Cyrus Longworth Lundell in Central America and the United States. |
1877 - 1969 
William Martin William Keble Martin was an English Anglican priest and botanical illustrator who is best known for his meticulous book The Concise British Flora in Colour, which took 60 years of fieldwork and painting for him to produce. |
1909 - 1988 
Margaret Mee Margaret Mee was an English botanical artist and field botanist who traveled widely in Brazil and became a specialist in bromeliads. |
1647 - 1717 
Maria Merian Maria Sibylla Merian was a 17th century German naturalist and artist acclaimed for producing the first accurate depictions of the life cycles of many insects. |
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1860 - 1943 
Amanda Newton Amanda Newton was a botanical illustrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture specializing in pomological watercolors. She was the second-most prolific illustrator in the USDA's early days. |
1864 - 1943 
Grace Niles Grace Greylock Niles was an American botanist and botanical illustrator who had a special interest in native orchids, publishing Bog-Trotting for Orchids in 1904. |
1830 - 1890 
Marianne North Marianne North was a British Victorian era traveling botanical illustrator whose work is known for its meticulous beauty, scientific accuracy, and backgrounds depicting the subject's habitat. Her paintings are on permanent display at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. |
1889 - 1963 
Olive Palgrave Olive Coates Palgrave was a South African botanical illustrator best known for her illustrated book Trees of Central Africa (1956). |
1745 - 1771 
Sydney Parkinson Sydney Parkinson was a Scottish botanical illustrator and naturalist who was the first European artist to set foot in Australia, New Zealand, and Tahiti when he worked aboard the HMS Endeavor during Captain James Cook's first Pacific voyage. |
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1840 - 1911 
Deborah Passmore Deborah Griscom Passmore was a prolific American botanical artist who worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and is often considered the best artist from the department's early days. |
1882 - 1971 
Elsie Pomeroy Elsie Lower Pomeroy was an American botanical illustrator who worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the early 20th century. |
1838 - 1895 
William Prestele William Henry Prestele was a German-American botanical illustrator who specialized in watercolor and lithographs and worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. |
1905 - 1987
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Joseph Pyron Joseph Hicks Pyron was an American plant collector who studied the violets of Georgia for his M.S. degree, and illustrated McVaugh's Ferns of Georgia. Pyron was later associated with the American Camellia Society. |
1911 - 2011
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Louise Raynor Louise Raynor, who received a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1945, prepared illustrations for Professor Lester Sharp's Fundamentals of Cytology (1943). |
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1759 - 1840 
Pierre-Joseph Redoute Pierre-Joseph Redoute was a Belgian painter, perhaps the most popular and well-known botanical illustrator of all time. He is most known for his watercolors of ornamental flowers, especially roses and lilies. |
1873 - 1963 
William Rice William S. Rice was an American woodblock and linoleum block print artist, famous for his landscapes, who was also an amateur botanist and botanical illustrator. |
1754 - 1821
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Louis-Claude Richard Louis-Claude Marie Richard was a French botanist and botanical illustrator, father of the botanist Achille Richard. He coined the terms "pollinium" and "gynostemium," and the genus Richardia is named for him. |
1794 - 1852 
Achille Richard Achille Richard Awas a French pharmacist, botanist, and botanical illustrator, son of the botanist Louis-Claude Marie Richard. |
1798 - 1830 
Charles Robertson Charles John Robertson was an English botanical illustrator who contributed works to the Botanical Register and Transactions of the Royal Horticultural Society of London (now The Garden). |
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1848 - 1922 
Ellis Rowan Ellis Rowan was a world-renowned Australian botanical illustrator who created illustrations for Alice Lounsberry's A Guide to the Wild Flowers and other volumes. |
1923 - 1998 
Marion Ruff Marion Ruff Sheehan was an American botanical illustrator at the L.H. Bailey Hortorium, Cornell University, and spouse of the orchidologist Thomas Sheehan. |
1823 - 1896 
Louis Saporta Louis C.J. Gaston de Saporta was a French paleobotanist who published several paleofloras of European deposits, which he illustrated himself. |
1824 - 1901 
Katharine Saunders Katharine Saunders was an Engllish botanical illustrator and plant collector who settled in South Africa. She was well-connected to prestigious botanists of the time, including Joseph Dalton Hooker and Marianne North. |
1873 - 1955 
Ellen Schutt Ellen Isham Schutt was an American botanical illustrator who worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture during the early twentieth century. |
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1862 - 1940 
Elsie L. Shaw Elsie Shaw was the illustrator for Theodora Parson's well-received How to Know the Wildflowers in 1893, the first guide to the wildflowers of North America. |
1872 - 1948 
James Shull James Marion Shull was a horticulturalist known for his iris and daylily cultivars. He was also a botanical illustrator who contributed 777 paintings to the USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection. |
1854 - 1926 
Matilda Smith Matilda Smith, second cousin to Joseph Dalton Hooker, was a highly productive (Indian-born) English botanical illustrator known for her contributions to Curtis's Botanical Magazine and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. She was the first artist to thoroughly depict New Zealand plants, the first official artist at Kew, and the second woman to ever be elected to the Linnaean Society. |
1875 - 1964 
Royal Steadman Royal Charles Steadman was an American wax fruit modeler and botanical illustrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. |
1911 - 1990 
Greta Stevenson Greta Stevenson was a New Zealand botanist, microbiologist, mycologist, educator, and botanical illustrator who wrote several books on New Zealand plants and fungi. |
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1910 - 1973 
Eric Sventenius E.R. Sventenius was a Swedish horticulturist, floristician and plant taxonomist who worked mainly in the Canary Islands, at the Jardin de Aclimatacion de la Orotava, Tenerife. Besides his work on the Canarian flora, his established the Jardin Botanico Canario Viera y Clavijo, Gran Canaria, in 1952, which opened in 1959. |
1872 - 1952
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Alexandrina Taylor Alexandrina Taylor was an American pteridologist and botanical illustrator who worked and published with Elizabeth Britton |
1775 - 1840 
Pierre Turpin Pierre Jean Francois Turpin was a French botanical illustrator who collaborated with a number of other naturalists including Alexander von Humboldt, Aime Bonpland, and Augustin Saint-Hilaire. |
1805 - 1889 
Elizabeth Twining Elizabeth Twining was a botanical illustrator, author, and heiress of the Twinings family of tea merchants. |
1860 - 1940 
Mary Walcott Mary Vaux Walcott was a prominent American botanical illustrator and photographer, who illustrated North American Wildflowers (1925). She also developed photographic negatives for Charles Dolittle Walcott (whom she would later marry), taken during expeditions to the Canadian Rockies in the early 20th Century. |
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1878 - 1957 
Una Weatherby Una Foster Weatherby was a photographer and illustrator who produced work in support of the research efforts of her spouse, the pteridologist Charles Alfred Weatherby. |
1892 - 1974 
Eula Whitehouse Eula Whitehouse was a botanist and professor who authored and illustrated the first color guide to Texas wildflowers. |
1839 - 1884 
John E. Williamson John Williamson was a 19th Century Scottish-American amateur botanist, illustrator and artist, noted for his treatment of the Ferns of Kentucky. |
1792 - 1877 
Augusta Withers Augusta Innes Withers was an English botanical illustrator best known for her work with John Lindley and for her collaboration with Sarah Anne Drake on Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala by James Bateman. |
1791 - 1828 
Anne Wollstonecraft Anne Kingsbury Wollstonecraft was an American botanist and botanical illustrator best known for her extensive three-volume illustrated manuscript Specimens of the Plants and Fruits of the Island of Cuba. |