WHAT would the almost-centenarian Alex Floyd have thought of Facebook being flooded with posthumous tributes to his achievements in the world of rainforest botany, his magical yet totally natural-to-him way with mentoring, and his sweet manner?

On Monday 12 December 2022, with Alex Floyd passing away, aged 96, Facebook proved to be an important place for people to share their reminiscences of this lovely man with a huge legacy left in and on this Earth.

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Botanist Andrew Murray posted, “No-one has done more to bring NSW rainforests into our hearts, minds and culture.

“A great botanist, an old-growth veteran, a mentor to me and so many.

“And a lovely man.”

Speaking with NOTA, Andrew Murray said, “I have known Alex for a long time but hadn’t seen him for 20 years.

“My association with Alex is treasured by myself.

“He was a major figure and mentor to all in my area of botany.”

Elders of rainforest research, protection and publishing, Nan and Hugh Nicholson shared reminiscences of working and collaborating with Alex.

“Alex had a vast knowledge of plants in Australia and around the world,” Nan told NOTA.

“However, rainforest was his specialty and throughout his life he delighted in accumulating and disseminating knowledge about it.

“He was an inspired teacher, able to pitch his information to the level of the student.

“He never made anyone feel foolish for not knowing.”

Nan and Hugh met him first in the mid-1970s when he worked for the NSW Forestry Commission as their chief botanist and they were newcomers in the rainforest, opposing the Forestry plans to log Terania Creek Basin.

“He graciously helped us with the tree identification for a transect through rainforest in the Basin that helped to prove its botanical diversity.”

When he worked for State Forests of NSW he produced detailed keys to the rainforest plants of NSW and later compiled these into Rainforest Trees of Mainland South-eastern Australia in 1989.

This book quickly became the bible for rainforest scholars and enthusiasts because of its extraordinary detail.

“When this book went out of print, Alex asked us to publish the revised edition in 2008.”

He also wrote the two-volume set, Australian Rainforests, in New South Wales in 1990.

“These volumes are now hard to find as no-one ever relinquishes their copies,” she said.

“Alex had several rainforest trees named after him, including the genus Floydia, and the species Bosistoa floydii, Cryptocarya floydii, Endiandra floydii and a grass, Alexfloydia repens.

“He will be greatly missed by the many people who valued him as a rainforest authority and as a kindly, modest man.

“It will be my seventieth birthday in a few days so I guess I am an elder of sorts and I now teach other people about the things that Alex taught me.

“Alex is the teacher that I have tried to emulate.

“He was always so excited and interested in the natural world and clearly wanted others to be similarly enthused.

“He never big-noted himself or put others down, even when he was correcting some really stupid botanical mistake,” Nan closed.

By Andrea FERRARI