Francis Rose

For the chemist see Frank Rose

Francis Rose MBE (29 September 1921 – 15 July 2006) was an English field botanist and conservationist. He was an author, researcher and teacher. His ecological interests in Britain and Europe included bryophytes, fungi, higher plants, plant communities and woodlands.

Rose was born in south London. He studied natural sciences at Chelsea Polytechnic and Queen Mary College, University of London, graduating with a degree in botany. He obtained a PhD in 1953, studying the structure and ecology of British lowland bogs.

From 1949, he taught at Bedford College and other colleges in London. In 1964, he joined the geography department as Senior Lecturer in Biogeography at King's College London, becoming a Reader in 1975 until 1981.

He married in 1943 and had a family of three sons and a daughter. Rose was awarded the MBE in 2000. He died at Liss in Hampshire.

[edit] Books

The Wild Flower Key — How to identify wild plants, trees and shrubs in Britain and Ireland, 1981. Revised by Clare O'Reilly, 2006. Frederick Warne. ISBN 0-7232-5175-4.
Colour Identification Guide to the Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns of the British Isles and North Western Europe, 1989. Viking. ISBN 0-670-80688-9.
The Flora of Hampshire, 1996. Co-authored with Richard Mabey, Lady Anne Brewis and Paul Bowman. Harley Books. ISBN 0-946589-34-8.
Rose, Francis; P. Wolseley (1984). Nettlecombe Park: Its History and Its Epiphytic Lichens - An Attempt at Correlation. Field Studies Council. ISBN 1-85153-165-3.