Helen Isobel Aston Explained

Birth Date:	1934 3, df=yes
Birth Place:	Narrandera, New South Wales, Australia
Fields:	Botany
Workplaces:	National Herbarium of Victoria
Alma Mater:	University of Melbourne
Known For:	Aquatic Plants of Australia
Author Abbrev Bot:	Aston

Helen Isobel Aston (26 March 1934 – 17 March 2020^[1]) was an Australian botanist^[2] and ornithologist.

Biography

Aston completed her Bachelor of Science in 1957 with majors in botany and zoology from the University of Melbourne.^[3]

Aston worked at the National Herbarium of Victoria from 1956 to 1991, where she became one of Australia's leading authorities on freshwater vascular plants.^[4] The National Herbarium of Victoria holds the majority of Aston's herbarium, almost 3,000 specimens, with duplicates distributed around Australian Herbaria including AD, BRI, CANB, HO, NE, NSW and PERTH. Aston is probably best known for her book Aquatic Plants of Australia published in 1973 by Melbourne University Press.

Aston has represented Australian herbaria as the Australian Botanical Liaison Officer in 1974 with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom.

Aston edited the in-house journal, Muelleria, from 1977 to 1988.

Selected published names

• Limnophyton australiense Aston
• Triglochin alcockiae Aston
• Nymphoides triangularis Aston
  • See also

and

• Australian Plant Name Index^[5]

Awards and honours

In 1979, Aston was awarded the Australian Natural History Medallion by the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria.^[6]

Selected publications

Books

• Aquatic Plants of Australia (1973)^[7]
• A bird atlas of the Melbourne Region (1978)^[8]

Journal articles

• • • • • H.I. Aston . Influx of the Grey-headed Flying-fox Pteropus poliocephalus (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae) to the Melbourne area, Victoria, in 1986 . The Victorian Naturalist . 1987 . 104 . 9–13 . en. cs2.

Legacy

The following plants have been named in her honour:

Genera

• Astonia S.W.L.Jacobs^[9]

Species

• Nymphoides astoniae M.D.Barrett & R.L.Barrett^[10]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Helen Isobel Aston Death Notice - Melbourne, Victoria | the Age.
2. Web site: Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries - Index of Botanists - Aston, Helen I. . Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries . . 21 November 2021.
3. Web site: BOCA BIOGRAPHY 2005. Birdlife Australia. 25 August 2017.
4. Web site: Aston, Helen I.. Australian National Botanic Gardens. 25 August 2017.
5. Web site: Australian Plant Name Index . 25 November 2020.
6. Web site: The victorian naturalist. archive.org. 2017-08-25. South Yarra, [Vic.] : Field Naturalists Club of Victoria. 1884.
7. Book: Aston, Helen I.. Aquatic plants of Australia; a guide to the identification of the aquatic ferns and flowering plants of Australia, both native and naturalized. 1973. Melbourne University Press. 978-0522840445. Carlton, Vic.. 3241613.
8. Book: Aston, Helen I.. A bird atlas of the Melbourne Region. 1978. Victorian Ornithological Research Group. Balmford, Rosemary., Victorian Ornithological Research Group.. 978-0959591408. Melbourne. 4962542.
9. Jacobs. Surrey. Astonia (Alismataceae), a new genus for Australia. Telopea. 7. 2. 139–141. 10.7751/telopea19971004. 1997. free.
10. Barrett . M.D. . Barrett . R.L . Twenty-seven new species of vascular plants from Western Australia. . Nuytsia . 3 November 2015 . 26 . 67–70 .