Ian Bennallick
Ian is well-known and highly respected for his botanical activities in Cornwall and further afield. He is the Botanical Society for Britain and Ireland (BSBI) Vice-County Recorder for East Cornwall and the Coordinator of the Botanical Cornwall Group. Ian has surveyed rare species, including shore dock, for Natural England and has monitored the condition of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in the county. He also a member of the Cornish Biodiversity Network.
Ian was lead author of the second edition of “The Red Data Book for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly” (2009) and joint co-author (with Rosemary Parslow) of “The New Flora of the Isles of Scilly” (2017). His other publications include papers on rediscovery of plants thought to be extinct in Cornwall, including perennial centaury, a national rarity presumed extinct in Cornwall since 1962 and rediscovered there in 2010. He was a significant contributor to “Fumitories of Britain and Ireland” (2009), authored by Rosaline Murphy (a previous Marsh Botany Award recipient), and he was one of the main volunteer recorders contributing to “The Flora of Cornwall” (2020) by Colin French. He has written numerous blogs for the Botanical Cornwall Group webpage and he has been co-editor of the Botanical Cornwall Newsletter.
Ian has been a hugely effective organiser of botanical activities in Cornwall and a great ambassador more widely for Cornish botany. He is always willing to help with enquiries relating to Cornwall and its plants – a great enthusiast, he is generous in sharing his knowledge. One of the committee members wrote “Above all, he is a great enthusiast and a thoroughly likeable man with a great sense of humour. Much of what he has achieved has been in part due to the fact that he’s basically a ‘good bloke’.”