Honours and Awards

• Rational
• The Honour and Award Committee
• Nomination and Procedures
• Honour and Awards Categories
• Click here for a nomination form (Adobe pdf, 81KB)

Rationale

The Botanical Society of South Africa has established a set of Honours and Awards by which it honours the achievements and contributions of mainly (but not only) the members of the Society to the mission of the organisation which broadly encompasses the promotion and appreciation of the South African wild flower heritage. These awards are presented for important achievements and are evaluated according to strict criteria (see below) by an Honours & Awards Committee that is appointed by the Council of the Botanical Society.

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The Honour & Award Committee

The Honours & Awards Committee (referred to as the ‘ Committee’) shall consist of a Chairman and at least five (5) and not more than eight (8) other members of the Society in good standing. The Director and / or Deputy Director will serve in an ex officio capacity.

The role of the Committee will be to meet once a year in August to consider the nominations for the various awards. Those nominations would have been received as per the criteria set out below. The award recipients will be determined at the meeting of the Committee and the decisions of the Committee, as a standing committee of Council, will be final for all the awards except for the Honorary Life Membership and Schelpe Awards (see below).

The decisions of the Committee will remain confidential until the Annual General Meeting of the Botanical Society that takes place in September of each year at which time they will be announced.

It is the task of the Committee to ensure the following:

• That all nominations comply with the criteria and are considered fairly.

• That a high standard is maintained.

• That if there are no suitable nominees of sufficiently high standard, the awards not be awarded.

From time to time it may be necessary for the Committee to consider establishing additional awards. These awards would have to be well motivated with clear criteria in keeping with the ethos of the Botanical Society mission. Such an award would require debate and approval by the Council of the Society.

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Nomination and nomination procedure

Nomination may be made for the relevant award through the Director of the Society or the Chairman of Council. Nominations may be made at any time, but it is preferable that they be submitted in June of each year so that the award coincides with the Annual General Meeting of the Society. Nominations shall be made on the Honours and Awards nomination form according to the instructions appearing thereon. This form is obtainable from Head Office.

The nominations must be well-motivated and must have a proposer and seconder who are both members of the Botanical Society in good standing. The nomination form is given below.

Click here for a nomination form

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Honour and Award Categories

Honorary Life Membership. This may be awarded to any member of the Botanical Society who has rendered exceptional services to the Society or one of its branches. The conferring of the award must be voted on by members present at an Annual General Meeting of the Society.

Bolus Medal. This medal may be awarded to an amateur botanist who has made a significant contribution to our knowledge of the flora through publications in the recognized scientific literature.  The recipient may not earn his/her living from the above works, but may have received formal training in Botany at the university level. The Medal commemorates the life and work of Harry Bolus, retired stockbroker, who published extensively on the South African Flora, endowed the first chair of Botany at the University of ape Town and founded the Bolus Herbarium at that university.

Marloth Medal.  This medal may be awarded to any amateur or professional botanist who has produced scientific literature of a popular nature to stimulate public interest in the indigenous flora of southern Africa. The medal commemorates Dr. Rudolph Marloth, pharmacist, analytical chemist and botanist who published much on the South African flora, the most famous publication being his Flora of South Africa which appeared in six magnificently illustrated volumes between 1913 and 1932.

Schelpe Award.  The award is made for the best article in Veld & Flora in any given year covering any aspect of the horticulture of the indigenous flora of southern Africa. The award commemorates Professor. E.A. .L.E. (Ted) Schelpe, botanist, horticulturalist, fern and orchid specialist of international repute, past President of the Botanical Society and Director of the Bolus Herbarium at the time of his death in 1985.

Denys Heesom Medal.  This medal may be awarded to any person or organization that has made a significant contribution to the eradication of alien vegetation in southern Africa This award commemorates Denys Heesom, businessman and conservationist, Chairman of the Botanical Society Council from 1973 to 1976, and founder of the well-known Betty’s Bay Hack Group who was especially keen on the eradication of alien vegetation. He was the author of Green Cancers published by the Botanical Society.

Cythna Letty Medal.  This medal is awarded to any person who has made a significant contribution to the promotion of the South African Flora through the medium of published botanical illustrations. (In this context illustrations refer to paintings or drawings but not to photographs for which a separate medal exists.) This award commemorates Cythna Letty, botanical artist for the Botanical Research Institute whose work included 730 plates in Flowering Plants of Africa.

Dudley D’Ewe Medal. This medal may be awarded to any person who effectively promotes the flora of southern Africa and its conservation through the media (newspapers, popular journals, radio and television, but excluding books). This award commemorates Dudley D’Ewes, journalist and conservationist, President of the Society from 1956 to 1974.

Percy Sergeant Medal. This medal may be awarded to any person who effectively promotes the flora of southern Africa and its conservation through the medium of photography. The award commemorates Percy Sergeant, member and friend of the Society whose internationally acclaimed photographs illustrated a large number of publications on the flora of South Africa.

Botanical Society Flora Conservation Medal.  This medal may be awarded to any person who has contributed considerably towards the preservation and conservation of the flora of southern Africa. This award is intended to cover a wide spectrum of persons such as landowners, financiers, educationalists etc.

Botanical Society Certificate of Merit. This award may be made to a member of the Society (on recommendation from a branch) where the Council would like to acknowledge the valuable contribution made by that member to the promotion of the flora of South Africa [or to the aims and objectives of the Botanical Society in promoting the Flora of South Africa]. These services may be of a variety of nature, e.g. administrative work in branch offices; plant identification and herbarium work (for plant shows); teaching and guiding work; financial donations; flower show organization; public awareness stimulation etc.

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