Alexander Clifford Beauglehole


Alexander Clifford "Cliff" Beauglehole was an Australian farmer, botanist, plant collector and naturalist.

Life

Beauglehole was born in Gorae West, a locality near Portland in the Shire of Glenelg, of south-western Victoria, to the Beauglehole family, which were settlers from Cornwall, and arrived in the area in the nineteenth century. He attended Gorae state primary school but left after attaining his Qualifying Certificate to help his parents on the farm. He soon began making botanical surveys of the Portland area, as well as engaging in other natural history activities such as the study of Australian native bees, surveys of bone deposits in caves and the examination of beach-washed seabirds. By the 1940s, he had purchased the Gorae West farm from his parents and continued mixed farming there until 1968, when his family along with himself moved into Portland, in order to further his botanical career.
It is also during the 1940s that he discovered a new species of triggerplant, that is now commonly called Beauglehole's Trigger-plant; Stylidium beaugleholei. After 1968, Beauglehole was contracted to carry out botanical surveys in national parks and for the Victorian Land Conservation Council, which became his principal occupation. He published on a wide variety of natural history subjects, including the 13 volume The Distribution and Conservation of Vascular Plants in Victoria, written to cover the 73 study areas of the Victorian Conservation Council.
He died from complications after a stroke in 2002

Botanical Collections

Beauglehole was reported to have had a private herbarium of over 23,000 specimens, and his numbering scheme indicates that over his lifetime he collected over 95,000 specimens. The bulk of his plant collections are held at the National Herbarium of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, with approximately 7,000 specimens held by the Western Australian Herbarium. Roughly another 150 specimens from the Ballarat region are held at the Federation University Herbarium.
Museums Victoria holds 583 of zoological specimens of vertebrates and invertebrates, including type specimens, that were collected by Beauglehole in Victoria, Western Australia, New South Wales, South Australia, Northern Territory, and Queensland.

Published major works

  • Beauglehole, A.C. 1979. The Distribution and Conservation of native vascular plants in the Victorian Mallee.
  • Beauglehole, A.C. 1980. The Distribution and Conservation of vascular plants in the Corangamite – Otway area, Victoria.
  • Beauglehole, A.C. 1981a. The Distribution and Conservation of vascular plants in the Alpine area, Victoria.
  • Beauglehole, A.C. 1981b. The Distribution and Conservation of vascular plants in the East Gippsland area, Victoria.
  • Beauglehole, A.C. 1982. The Distribution and Conservation of vascular plants in the North Central area, Victoria.
  • Beauglehole, A.C. 1983a. The Distribution and Conservation of vascular plants in the Melbourne area, Victoria.
  • Beauglehole, A.C. 1983b. The Distribution and Conservation of vascular plants in the Ballarat area, Victoria.
  • Beauglehole, A.C. 1984a. The Distribution and Conservation of vascular plants in the South Gippsland area, Victoria.
  • Beauglehole, A.C. 1984b. The Distribution and Conservation of vascular plants in South West Victoria.
  • Beauglehole, A.C. 1985. The Distribution and Conservation of vascular plants in the Gippsland Lakes Hinterland area, Victoria.
  • Beauglehole, A.C. 1986. The Distribution and Conservation of vascular plants in the Murray Valley area, Victoria.
  • Beauglehole, A.C. 1987. The Distribution and Conservation of vascular plants in the Wimmera area, Victoria.
  • Beauglehole, A.C. 1988. ''The Distribution and Conservation of vascular plants in the North East area, Victoria.''

Honours and awards

In 1971, Beauglehole was awarded the Australian Natural History Medallion by the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria, becoming an Honorary Member of the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria in 1982.
In 1984 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his services to "botany, conservation, and ornithology" by the then-Prince Charles

Legacy

The following plants, algae, and insect species have been named in his honour:

Algae

Helminthocladia beaugleholei WomersleyNitella tasmanica var. beaugleholii R.D.Wood

Lichen

Moss

Phascum beaugleholei I.G.Stone

Vascular Plants

Sclerolaena beaugleholei A.J.ScottCaladenia beaugleholei D.L.Jones, now a synonym of Caladenia flavovirens G.W.Carr.Epilobium brunnescens subsp. beaugleholei K.R.West & P.H.RavenLobelia beaugleholei Albr.Ornduffia umbricola var. beaugleholei Tippery & LesPrasophyllum beaugleholei Nicholls, now a synonym of Genoplesium nudum D.L.Jones & M.A.Clem.Solanum beaugleholei D.E.SymonStylidium beaugleholei J.H.WillisUtricularia beaugleholei R.J.Gassin

Bees

Exoneura (Brevineura) cliffordiella RaymentHylaeus cliffordiellus Rayment

Wasp

Sericophorus cliffordi Rayment