| Elaine Rebecca Bullard | |
| Birth Date: | 11 May 1915 |
| Birth Place: | Greenwich, London, England |
| Death Place: | Kirkwall, Orkney Isles |
Elaine Rebecca Bullard MBE (1915–2011) was a British botanist who led systematic recording of the flora of the Orkney Islands and Caithness in the UK for over 50 years and raised awareness of conserving the natural habitat of the islands. In 1959 she was a founding member of the Orkney Field Club and was its president from 1993 until her death.[1]
She explored the diverse habitats of the 39 islands of Orkney to record its flora, both flowering, and non-flowering plants such as ferns. There are around 500 native plants and a further 200 have been introduced.[2] She recorded not only species but hybrids and over more than half a century built up an unrivaled knowledge and record of Orcadian plant life. At times she travelled in a Robin Reliant three-wheeler which she had modified to so that it could act as a tent.[3] She also made field records in the adjacent mainland region of Caithness to compare island and mainland. Her records, revisiting the same site over many years have provided the data to assess the impact of changes in land management and climate. She also campaigned for a repository for biological records of Orkney and was eventually successful when the Orkney Biodiversity Records Centre was founded. Her work inspired visiting academics, students and teachers over decades.
She was the Official Recorder of Orkney for the Botanical Society of the British Isles for 46 years (1963–2009), resigning this role when she was 93 years old.[4] Her scientific publications of papers, treatises and book chapters included work on the Scottish primrose (Primula scotica), endemic to Orkney and the north coast of Scotland. Her checklist of the flowering plants and ferns of Orkney, published in 1972 and subsequently up-dated, is the essential reference for the island's flora.[5]
From the age of 10, Elaine Bullard was interested in identifying plants. However, she was entirely a self-taught botanist. She moved to Orkney in 1946 as a milk recorder employed by the Milk Marketing Board. In 1960 she gave up this employment to concentrate on recording the plants of Orkney.