Photography can’t bring each unique detail of a plant to life whereas an artist can hone in on the way a leaf is attached to a stem, the formation of spikelets or hidden features beyond what’s in the photo. Photography and film may play a role in expeditions, but they can never replace the accuracy of an illustration. ‘An illustration gives a better impression than my five pages of Latin text that goes alongside it! But it’s not just a communication tool, it is a scientific tool and absolutely essential.’ They help me identify grasses, which often have tiny spikelets and other small structures that I need to compare in order to understand what makes one grass different to another. ‘Botanical artists are in fact scientific professionals. Maria Vorontsova, a taxonomist of Madagascan grasses, relies on botanical artists for her work. Published alongside a written description, the artist’s plate is part of the definition of a plant.
They appear in inventories, journals and field guides, but most importantly our artists’ plates are printed in the world’s longest running botanical magazine, Curtis’s Botanical Magazine – the definitive publication on botany and horticulture, and produced by Kew for over 200 years. Right back to the early botanists, the artist was often the first to officially document many of the plants we know today.Īn illustration is used to support the work of botanists and horticulturists, describing the plant for the science records.
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