Susyn M. Andrews

Andrews went to school at Rathnew, County Wicklow, Ireland, and studied at the National Botanic Garden, Glasnevin, where she graduated in 1973 with a First Class Honours in Amenity Horticulture and a Silver Medal awarded by the Irish Department of Horticulture. She continued her studies at J.Timm and Co. Pflanzen-Kolle and Johann Bruns Nurseries in Germany and then at the Hillier Arboretum and Nursery in Hampshire. She worked as a horticultural taxonomist at the Herbarium, Kew Gardens, from 1976,{{Cite journal|date=1978|title=Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Scientific, Technical and Administrative Staff|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/4109792|journal=Kew Bulletin|volume=32|issue=4|pages=863–872|jstor=4109792}} initially in the Enquiry Unit, where members of the public could send in plants for identification, becoming Gardens Verifier in 1987. She was promoted to Higher Scientific Officer in 1988 and took part in a collecting expedition to Sabah, Malaysia, concentrating on Ilex.{{Cite journal |last=Sands |first=Martin |date=1989 |title=News of Kewites at Home and Abroad in 1988 |url=http://journal.kewguild.org.uk/v10s93p724-All.pdf |journal=The Journal of the Kew Guild |volume=10 |issue=93 |page=783 |via=Kew Guild}} She eventually became head of the Horticultural Taxonomy Unit.{{Cite news|last=Kingsbury|first=Noel|date=4 January 2008|title=Plant taxonomy made easy|work=The Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/3346168/Plant-taxonomy-made-easy.html}}{{Cite journal|date=1998|title=Kew Gardens Staff List|url=https://issuu.com/kewguildjournal/docs/v13s102p114-all|journal=The Journal of the Kew Guild|page=191|via=ISSUU}} In 2003 she left Kew becoming a full time freelance Consultant Horticultural Taxonomist in her own practise, and teaching courses on taxonomy for gardeners.

Andrews has a long-term taxonomic research project into Ilex of Southeast Asia and in cultivation, as well as collaborating on Aquifoliaceae for Kubitzki's Families & Genera of Vascular Plants.{{Cite web|title=Andrews, Susyn|url=http://www.kew.org/science-research-data/directory/people/Andrews_Susyn.htm|url-status=live|website=Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120114001648/http://www.kew.org/science-research-data/directory/people/Andrews_Susyn.htm|archive-date=2012-01-14}}

Andrews was co-founder in 1988 and chairman (1988–1998) of (HORTAX), the Horticultural Taxonomy Group, a member of the editorial committee of Curtis's Botanical Magazine, the senior editor of Taxonomy of Cultivated Plants (1999), is an Honorary Research Associate at Kew, and sat on the ISHS Commission for Nomenclature and Registration.

Her work on lavender and holly has been recognised by the Holly Society of America who awarded her the Wolf-Fenton Award (1991) and The Shiu-ying Hu Award (2004).{{Cite web|date=2021|title=Awards|url=http://www.hollysocam.org/awards.htm|access-date=13 October 2021|website=Holly Society of America}} She was awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal by the Royal Horticultural Society (2012),{{Cite web|date=13 June 2012|title=More RHS Honours for British gardening women|url=https://gardeningwomen.typepad.com/blog/susyn-andrews/|access-date=13 October 2021|website=Gardening Women}}{{Cite journal |last=Hepper |first=Nigel |date=2013 |title=News of Kewites at Home and Abroad |url=http://journal.kewguild.org.uk/v16s117p145-All.pdf |journal=Journal of the Kew Guild |volume=16 |issue=117 |pages=245–246 |via=The Journal of Kew Guild}} and the George Brown Memorial Award (2016) by the Kew Guild.

In 1988 she married Brian Schrire in South Africa.

• Molecular phylogeny and historical biogeography of the genus Ilex L. (Aquifoliaceae). Cuenoud, P., Del Pero Martinez, M.A., Loizeau, P.-A., Spichiger, R., Andrews, S. & Manen, J.-F. (1999). Annals of Botany 85(1): 111–122.
• Taxonomy of Cultivated Plants: Third International Symposium. (1999). Andrews, S; A. Leslie; C. Alexander. Kew Publishing, London
• The mountain holly (Nemopanthus mucronatus) revisited with molecular data. Powell, M., Savolainen, V., Cuénoud, P., Manen, J.-F. & Andrews, S. (2000). Kew Bulletin 55(2): 341–147.
• 9. Corchorus. In Beentje, H.J. & Smith, S.A.L. (eds) Flora of Tropical East Africa: Tiliaceae & Muntingiaceae. Andrews, S. (2001). Rotterdam: A.A. Balkema. 101–103.
• Tree of the Year: Nyssa. Andrews, S. (2001). International Dendrology Society Yearbook 2000: 120–158.
• Aquifoliaceae. In Soepadamo, E., Saw, L.G. & Chung, R.C.K. (eds). Andrews, S. (2002). The Tree Flora of Sabah & Sarawak 4: 1–27.
• Systematic relationship of weeping katsura based on nuclear ribosomal DNA sequences. Li, J., Dosmann, M., Del Tredici, P. & Andrews, S. (2002). HortScience 37(3): 595–598.
• The Genus Lavandula. A Botanical Magazine Monograph. Upson, T.M. & Andrews, S. (2004). Kew: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. pp 442.

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Category:Living people

Category:1953 births

Category:British women botanists

Category:Botanists active in Kew Gardens

Category:Veitch Memorial Medal recipients

Category:British horticulturists