Ian Charleson Hedge (18 August 1928 – 7 August 2022) was a Scottish botanist at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh. Hedge made important contributions to the flora of Iran and Iraq, and was a recognised authority on the flora of south-west Asia. He named more than 300 new plant species.
Hedge spent seven months collecting in Turkey in 1957 with Peter Davis. Together they gathered more than 6,000 specimens.[1] Then he spent 3 months in Afghanistan with (a Norwegian botanist) Per Wendelbo,[2] they made significant collections to the Garden Herbarium in 1962 in the north and north-east of the country and then he returned in 1969 with Wendelbo and Lars Ekberg. They were one of the first botanists to explore the area.[3]
By 1988, he was the curator of the Botanical Garden Herbarium.[7]
He collected in Portugal in the 1990s.[1] Then with Fatima Sales,[8] he published 'Jasione L. taxonomy and phylogeny' in 2002.[9] Also 'Three perplexing names of species of Campanula L.' [10] and 'The taxonomy and conservation of Campanula primulifolia (Campanulaceae), a critically endangered species in the Iberian Peninsula' in 2010 (with Anna Trias-Blasi, Eddie, William M.M. and Michel Möller).[11]
He contributed to 'The Davis Festschrift' (edited by Kit Tan) on Peter Hadland Davis's 70th birthday and his own 60th Birthday in 1989.[12]
He is mentioned in Mabberley's Plant-book of 2003[14] and his The Plant-book: A Portable Dictionary of the Vascular Plants (in 1990).[15]
In 2010, with other members of the Royal Botanical Garden, he identified various plant specimens for Mark Price's book 'Animal Re-introductions: The Arabian Oryx in Oman'.[16]
On 31 January 2012, he appealed (on behalf of the Royal Botanic Garden) via the BBC to the Pakistani government to release more than 4,000 copies of a botany text book destined for Afghanistan schools and environmental groups. The 10 tonnes of books had been held at customs in Karachi for the past year.[3] It is the 'Field Guide Afghanistan Flora and Vegetation', written by Ian and Siegmar-Walter Breckle in 2010.[17]
Hedge died on 7 August 2022, at the age of 93.[18]
A revision of Salvia in Africa and the Canary Islands. (Ian Hedge - 1974)[22]
Aizoaceae (Ian Charleson Hedge, Jennifer M. Lamond - 1975) [23]
Molluginaceae (Ian Charleson Hedge, Jennifer M. Lamond - 1975) [24]
Iridaceae: Aizoaceae (Karl Heinz Rechinger, Per Wendelbo, Brian Mathew, Ian Charleson Hedge, Jennifer M. Lamond, Jindrich Chrtek, Bohdan Křísa, Henriëtte Dorothea Schotsman, Harald Riedl - 1975)[25]
Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, vol. 7, Labiatae. (Ian Hedge and P.H Davis) Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1982[22]
Flora of Cyprus. Ian C Hedge (R.D. Meikle -editor), Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, 1985
Umbelliferae / I.C. Hedge editor, Karl Heinz Rechinger Hedge, Ian C. (Ian Charleson) 1987
Plant Taxonomy, Phytogeography and Related Subjects: Davis and Hedge Festschrift by P. H. Davis, Ian Charleson Hedge, Kit Tan and R.R. Mill (2 Nov 1989)
^The taxonomy and conservation of Campanula primulifolia (Campanulaceae), a critically endangered species in the Iberian Peninsula. worldcat.org. OCLC840774176.