KENT nature lovers are mourning the death of Dr Francis Rose, Britain’s premier field botanist. He was 85.

For many years a senior lecturer in biogeography and later University Reader at King’s College, London University, he spent much of his early life studying the flora and plant communities of Kent, becoming a familiar sight to many farmers and land owners.

A seven or eight hour botanical excursion through weald, downland and woods was his norm, methodically recording plants, lichens and fungi and, many years later, remembering exactly where he had seen them.

During the 1950s he would often accompany the Bishopsbourne author and broadcaster Jocelyn Brooke on his walks across Barham Downs or to the woods and hills beyond Kingston in search of wild orchids.

A leading member of the Botanical Society of the British Isles, his inspirational leadership and enthusiasm were major factors in the creation of the Kent Trust for Nature Conservation, now known as the Kent Wildlife Trust, and he was also a driving force and past president of the Kent Field Club, the Kent natural history society.

In 1969 he moved to Liss to survey the heaths, downs and beechwoods of Hampshire and Sussex but continued his forays into Kent visiting botanical friends, working closely with the Kent Wildlife Trust and producing a detailed list of the 100 most important botanical sites in the county.

His publications include The Wild Flower Key, considered by many to be the best guide to the flowers of Britain and Ireland, and a parallel book on grasses, sedges, rushes and ferns.

In 2000 Dr Rose was awarded the MBE for services to botany and in 2001 the Cadbury Medal for conservation.

He leaves a widow, Pauline, three sons and a daughter.